Breaking News Halifa & Abba Granted Bail, 7 Remanded at Mile 2,

--NIA Hunts Buya Jammeh & Fabakary Ceesay

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Highly placed Police sources have reported to The Gambia Echo that, Messrs. Halifa Sallah and Abba Gibba, publisher of the Foroyaa newspaper and Assistant News Editor for The Point newspaper respectively, have been granted bail this morning. They were both required to provide two forms of Gambian identification cards. Hon. Seedia Jatta of the opposition NADD coalition and co-founder of The Foroyaa newspaper (Mandinka for freedom) assisted Halifa in the bail process, police sources say.

According to the same sources, armed officials of the National Intelligence Agency have been dispatched to apprehend journalist Fabakary Ceesay of the Foroyaa and Buya Jammeh of the Today newspaper who is also, co-ordinator of The Gambia Press Union’s (GPU) Monitoring Unit. “Both men are wanted in connection with the GPU’s terse rejoinder to the President and subsequent reporting on the arrest of their colleagues,” reveal highly placed police sources. Says once source, “since Monday, we have been looking for Buya Jammeh but we cannot still catch him.”

Meanwhile, all seven of the original batch of seven journalists are being remanded at the maximum-security wing of the Mile II Central Prisons. They are expected to reappear in court on Monday. One of the detainees, Mrs. Sarata Jabbi-Dibba is a lactating mother of a six-month-old baby.