The Tragic Tale of Four Comrades; 2 Executed, 1 Sentenced to Life, 1 in Exile
By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief
Although there is a corpus of literature about them, yet nowhere have their images been seen except for the forced video confessions shortly after their alleged complicity in the foiled coup allegedly masterminded by fugitive army Chief Colonel Ndure Cham in March, 2006.
Today, The Gambia Echo is gracious to our sources for providing us with their photo taken barely three weeks in the prelude to the alleged coup that portended their extra-judicial executions on or about April 4th, 2006 during the infamous prisoner escape hoax reported by Yahya Jammeh’s government.
From left to right is Lieutenant Pharing Sanyang who was severely tortured until he lapsed into coma as revealed in his chilling testimony before the Kangaroo tribunal presided by a hustler turned mercenary judge in the person of Justice Akomaye Agim once Director of Public Prosecution and since elevated to the coveted rank of Appeals Court President. Lieutenant Sanyang was tortured by the regime’s most brutal thugs like the late Major Musa Jammeh, and the late Captain Momodou Tumbul Tamba; twins of evil whose chilling finality was long predicted by numerous people who either suffered from their heavy-handedness or were eyewitnesses to their unparalleled brutalities.
LT. Pharing Sanyang sentenced to life
Predictably, the errant jurist sentenced Sanyang to life imprisonment and today, like most other officers, the tragic figure sits behind the harrowing granite walls of Mile II Central Prisons; a place I have long called Africa’s Hell on Earth for very obvious reasons.
LT. Alieu Badara Ceesay, Executed
Second from left is Lieutenant Alieu Badara Ceesay formerly of the Nusrat High School and a graduate of Fort Benning, Georgia in the USA who despite official reports that he escaped during the prisoner transfer, The Gambia Echo reports with overwhelming evidence from our most authoritative State House sources, that he too was severely tortured, his head wrapped with heavy-duty trash bags and forced to confess. Reveal our sources; Ceesay was beaten with heavy-duty electric cables that left him in a pool of blood while the thugs continued to kick, pummel and simultaneously hitting his head and eyes with AK-47 riffle butts. Only the gods of Marena Parade; the ill-fated avenue where the predacious National Intelligence Agency (NIA) is headquartered, know how many times Lieutenant Ceesay lapsed into coma and then regained consciousness during these cruel torture sessions by rogues masquerading as military officers. Ceesay is survived by a wife and a young son about 7 years old.
Lt. Sainey Mendy In the UK
Third from left is Lieutenant Sainey Mendy formerly a star student at the Saint Augustine’s High School and a graduate of the elite British military Academy, Sand Hurst. Mendy had served as Adjutant at both the State House and Yundum Military Barracks. As if by divine deliverance, reveal our military sources, Lieutenant Mendy was scheduled to return to England for further military training when the coup drama unfolded. In the pandemonium that ensued, Mendy quickly took off for his military studies leaving behind what was to become a trail of havoc and destruction of human life by the authoritarian regime of Yahya Jammeh. Says our military whistle blower Officer X (a.k.a “OX”), Lieutenant Mendy’s lonely impunity from Jammeh’s killing machine, is distance. Adds Kissy Kissy Mansa, “Lt. Sainey Mendy should be thankful to God for narrowly escaping the gallows for there is no escaping the reality that if he had stayed a little longer, he too would have either disappeared or faced Justice Agim’s kangaroo tribunal.” According to “OX”, Lt. Mendy’s alter ego in The Gambia National Army (GNA) was Flight Lieutenant Ebou Lowe from Bakau and like Ceesay; Lowe was brutally tortured and then also executed cold blood. According to OX, Lt. Mendy, Lt. Lowe and Lt. Modou Alieu Bah of Kombo Lamin sentenced to 25 years by Justice Agim, were batch mates and were in fact, commissioned the same day as lieutenants.
RSM Alpha Bah Executed
At the far right of the photo is Regimental Sergeant Major Alpha Bah (a.k.a Lesso-Fula for bed). A member of the GNA’s 10th Intake under the British Army Training Team (BATT). Bah who enlisted in 1988 was a veteran of the Liberian war with Sir Jackal- Sgt. Alhagie Cham-Joof. Remembered as a brave soldier, Alpha had also served in the military crisis in Guinea Bissau and was so famous that soldiers referred to him as the Alkali (Village Chief) of Bakau Military Depot, an accolade informers at the barracks twisted making President Jammeh believe that Lesso was a potential threat to his regime. In his forced video confession, Bah had asked President Jammeh to spare their lives considering that they were very young and recently married. He invoked the ominous fate of his two boys who would be fatherless should he executed. All that fell in deaf ears and like the erstwhile NIA Director General Daba Marena, Lt. Alieu Badara Ceesay, Lt. Ebou Lowe and Staff Sergeant Manlafi Corr, Sgt. Major Alpha Bah too was severely tortured and then brutally executed by President Yahya Jammeh’s thugs. According to our sources, these five officers would have remained an embarrassment to the Jammeh regime had they seen the light of day because they were severely tortured with scars all over.