My Experience With the NIA (Cont'd) By Alhagie Nyabally, Ex-Gamsu Vice President The Independent (Banjul) COLUMN May 28, 2001 allAfrica.com Posted to the web May 28, 2001 At about 4.30 p.m., I dressed in my football gear to go for training. I placed my football on the back carrier of my bicycle and started riding to the park near the Buffer Zone in Talinding where our second division team was training. On my way to the football pitch, no sooner I took a curve from Bundung police station than I sighted two unnumbered cars behind me, one was the same Peugeot 505 that followed me from the GTTI and the other was a red Nissan vehicle. The red Nissan passed me and immediately stopped in front of my bicycle and I nearly knocked into it but slammed my brake to stop, while the 505 packed by my side. All of a sudden I saw two men coming out from the red Nissan who asked whether I was Alhagie Nyabally and I said no. They started asking me lots of questions, which I answered in the negative and after about two minutes, I saw nine men surround me, including an army sergeant who I once saw in Kanilai during our courtesy call on President Jammeh. The army sergeant told me to put my bicycle in the car and before he finished I had already pushed my bicycle on them and took to my heels. They chased after me and shouting thief, and calling on people to help them catch a thief but nobody helped them, as I was sportily dressed. I ran into one Mr. Dibba's compound around and shouted, "help, the APRC people are taking me. They want to kill me". I ran into an open house and closed the door after me, held on firmly to the door handle but they came and forced open the door by braking the lock and forcefully took me out. At that spot I began receiving rains of blows on all parts of my body. I was bundled into the Peugeot 505 and driven to Banjul. On my way to Banjul, I was subjected to verbal insults while blows continued to rain on me until we arrived in Banjul. While I was in the car, I was forced to lie down on the car floor with two pistols pointed at me, one pointing to my head while the other to my stomach, followed by inhuman physical treatment. My knees were beaten with pistols while my eyes were tied with my jacket until we arrived in Banjul. I was taken to the NIA headquarters where I was made to sit on the floor and watered like a crop in the desert. I was later asked to crawl on my knees to a dark cell where I was locked until the following day. The following day, I was taken to an office where I found about 13 men who interrogated me. One of the men called Tijan Bah asked one Demba Ceesay to undress me completely and take me in the flowers where I was again watered like a crop. Then Tijan asked me to put on my underwear, shorts and shirt and again several buckets full of water were poured on me. He (Tijan) again asked me to lie on the ground and turn like the donkeys do. He later instructed me to undress leaving only my underwear. I was then escorted by a security officer to Tijan's office again meeting about eight men there, including Tijan Bah, a man called Bamba and one Demba Ceesay together with one other short and tough fellow who put a handcuff on my hands and asked me to lie down. Then Tijan Bah, Bamba and the short and tough man started torturing me very mercilessly and at the same time verbally insulting my parents. All parts of my body were beaten and I sustained several injuries. They used cables and ropes made from cow skin as well as electric machines so that I was compelled to say things at their desire, I did not care whether they were true or false. At about 3 pm, after their interrogation, I was taken back to the same dark room where I had spent the night. During the interrogation I was asked who is sponsoring Gamsu, to which I told them were only sympathizers through donations, sponsored walks etc. They also asked me who was behind and helping Gamsu and I replied that it was the coalition of generous lawyers like Ousman Sillah, Emmanuel Joof, Mrs. Awa Sisay-Sabally and many others. I was also asked the amount we have in our account and I said we had only D500 when I last knew the figure. "How do you spend your money?" they asked, and I replied that we spent it on fruitful ventures and sponsoring needy and deserving students. Severe beatings and other forms of torture and inhuman treatment followed all the questions. On Thursday morning, I was again called for interrogation and at about 3pm, I was asked to write down all what I have said at the commemoration at the G.T.T.I, which I did and I was released in the afternoon. I was warned not to disclose any of what had happened to me while being arrested and during my detention. Tijan Bah told me, "we know where you live and to get rid of you will be easy for us. We can pay or use taxi drivers to eliminate you while riding on your bicycle and we will say it was an accident. Or we can even pay your playmates to eliminate you. In fact we can do anything it takes to get you finished. For your safety, do not tell anybody, they said or when they catch me they will kill me. He asked me to return the followindg morning. I did, by 8'o'clock I was there in his office. I was asked to wait, I sat there till 2pm and later asked to go home till Friday. When I reported on Friday, I was made to sit in Tijan's office until 12pm when I was again asked to go home and come back the following Monday, which I did and by 2pm I was again asked to go home and to come back another day. This is what I have been subjected to ever since and I have now been asked to be reporting after every four days, and everytime I reported, I received a different sort of ill-treatment from Tijan Bah in his office. On Tuesday 10th May I received a letter from the Permanent Secretary Department of State for Education, Dr Saidou Jallow terminating my sponsorship on the grounds that there are not enough funds with the government to sponsor me. On Tuesday 22nd May 2001, between 3 and 4 pm while coming from the Nusrat High School library, I was stopped by four men who began to ask me about Alhagie Nyabally and his whereabouts. I told them that he was in the library. I was asked to describe the clothes he was wearing, and when I told them, the two of them went inside the library while the other two asked me to wait. When I refused, a scuffle began between us. During this scuffle two others entered the school premises at about the same time that the two who went to the library came out, making six men altogether. When I attempted to go away, they tried to stop me and in the process, I exchanged some blows with them during which I sustained a knee dislocation. While I was struggling to get away from them, the two of them were keeping guard just in case someone was in sight. When all six of them decided to go outside the compound to study the situation, two students came from the library to find out what the noise was about. One of the NIA men told them to get inside and within the blink of an eye five of them had disappeared remaining one who was wearing a mask telling me to keep calm. He said to me, "I am your friend once in the Gamsu leadership. Where is your wife and mother?" I told him that I have no wife and that my parents were back in our village. When he asked me where our village was, I replied that I would not tell him. At that juncture, I heard whistling from one of his colleagues outside and he responded to the whistle then later asked me to keep calm while he went out of the school campus. However, while going out, he asked me, "where is Besenty Gomez, your university president living?" I just insulted his mother and said to him, "you are a savage, a parasite and a stooge". I followed him to the school gate and saw them boarding a white pick up with lines on its sides facing towards the Bundung mosque. I then shouted, "you hooligans", and I went back to my house to relax with my pain. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------