Breaking News: As Dida Halake Wept Before Kotu Police, Foroyaa Reporter Saikou Ceesay detained
By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief
Dida Halake
According to highly placed police sources, Dida Halake, the sacked Managing Director of the Gambian Daily Observer Newspaper & Company has began to express remorse over his numerous tirades against the Gambian press corps following what our sources described as a grueling interrogation by police at Kotu station over the weekend. According to our sources, Halake wept profusely as he was grilled on his dubious nationality, his religion and his mission in The Gambia. He gave conflicting information to police at times claming to be a Kenyan of Somali origin, sometimes claiming to be Ethiopian and others claiming to be a British subject. “You can tell that the man was devastated as he wept continuously asking police ‘what have I done to be humiliated like a criminal?’” our sources revealed. Numerous times as Halake scratched his legs to deflect mosquito bites, he would say, “I have to return to England where I was highly respected.” “With all the efforts I have done to promote this government and its policies, now I am treated like a dog” he would lament to his seeming mercilessly interrogators.
According to our sources, after two devastating nights with police, Halake had bloodstains all over his clothes because mosquitoes had devoured on him for two nights as he struggled to answer a barrage of tough questions that will ultimately determine his fate in the hands of Yahya Jammeh’s regime.
Police sources say Halake could not definitely say what his exact nationality was but when he reaches the National Intelligence Agency, that hurdle will be easily overcome. For now though, they have been able to establish that since coming to The Gambia with the help of James Alkali Gaye and Justice Hassan Boubacarr Jallow in the pre-coup days, Dida Halake has adopted a Gambian name: Dida Abdi Jallow Halake; that he is married to a young Fula girl from Mandinari with whom he has a boy named for Justice Hassan B. Jallow. According to our sources, Halake is trying to live a double life while in the country and President Jammeh is very upset with him.
In a related development, while investigating the Halake arrest, Foroyaa’s reporter and photojournalist Saikou Ceesay allegedly ran afoul of the Kotu police over the way he conducted his investigation and so the station officer in a show of bravado ordered for his immediate detention. Ceesay was detained Sunday night and transferred to the Serious Crimes Unit at Banjul’s Force headquarters Monday morning. He was quizzed for several hours before Suwaibou Touray an editorial board member of the Foroyaa Newspaper granted him bail. Saikou Ceesay is asked to return to the Serious Crimes Unit on Wednesday after what police sources described as embarrassing treatment in the form of threats and insults.
Meanwhile, Dida Halake was also released this morning and asked to return to face further questioning about alleged financial impropriety and numerous other national security issues. According to our sources, the Jammeh government has become very suspicious of Halake’s activities over the past three months especially, his relation with some Middle Eastern men in the Tourism Development Area. He is also alleged to have misappropriated over 1.5million Dalasis of the Daily Observer’s funds. For now though, it remains to be seen how the most errant Observer Manager whose very meteoric rise to the pinnacle was always suspect, will conduct himself as he faces Jammeh’s all too familiar kangaroo justice. One thing some us may miss is the humor of Halake’s syntactic garbage evident in almost all his empty editorials.