The Point
Monday, November 17, 2003

Waa Uncovers Assassination Attempt Against Him
By Pa Nderry Mbai

The leader of the National Democratic Action Party (NDAM) Lamin Waa Juwara
has claimed to have uncovered what he called an assassination attempt against
him by seven men posing as officers of the National Intelligence Agency who
wanted to abduct and kill him.

Mr. Juwara, a leading political figure, told The Point that the seven men who
were on board a green unregistered pick up stormed his Brikama residence
Saturday night claiming to be officers of the Agency.  He added that the men told
him that they received orders from the state to effect his arrest even though
they flatly refused to show him any arrest warrant or identification documents
despite repeated demands.

"They said they are not in the mood to talk and they received orders from
people at the top to arrest me", said Mbarodi.

He added that he suspected that the so-called NIA officers wanted to
perpetrate foul play against him.  "I suggested to them to join me to the Brikama
Police station for possible identification, before I could join them but they
refused.

The leader of the group had handcuffs with him at the time," Waa said,
pointing out that the man who professed to be the leader spoke very standard
Mandinka.  "He is either from Jarra, Niamina or Baddibu and one of them who is fair
in complexion spoke not very good English.  He has a Liberian accent.  He must
have lived in Liberia.  I had the feeling that if I had joined them, they
would have killed me and this would have been held against the government because
they posed as NIA operatives," he said.

He added that considering the problems he had with the current government
there is no way the Jammeh administration could be exonerated if the men had
executed their plans to kill him.

He branded the group as a bunch of criminals who wanted to stain the Jammeh
government, adding "I had several encounters with the NIA and know most of
their operatives.  The guys who came to my house are strange people and they
didn't want people to identify them.  The state should try and bring these people
to book.  I want to believe that these are the same people that burnt The
Independent."

He pointed out that he was not the least moved by the attempt by felt that
people should not be allowed to use unregistered cars in this country.

On whether he had lodged a complaint to the Police, he said there was no need
for it, adding that it is useless and time wasting as his previous reports
were never investigated.

"I was tortured by Baba Jobe and his thugs and nothing came out of it," Waa
added.

For his part, NDAM's National Youth President, Pa Manneh said when the
so-called NIA officers refused to identify themselves they, the youth ejected them
from Waa's house.

He added that as they were leaving they threatened to come back with
reinforcements prompting them to call their youth wing security to spend the night
with Waa, emphasising that they would no longer tolerate any arrest outside the
law.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~