By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-in-Chief
Highly placed sources at The Gambia’s all too powerful and most notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA) reveal that legal efforts were underfoot to charge First Lieutenant Sainey Mendy with interalia “treason and, conspiracy to commit treason through coup d’etat” in the March 21, 2006 abortive coup that has left a human rights scar on the brutal regime of President Yahya Jammeh.
Mendy, a graduate of England’s Royal Military Academy, Sand Hurst, reveal the sources has served as Platoon Commander at State House and was Adjutant at Yundum Barracks at the time of the alleged coup but as if by divine protection was never arrested says our highly placed sources. However, as investigations progressed says a source, his name was mentioned numerous times as a good friend to both ‘second accused’-Gambia’s Accountant General Alieu Jobe and military colleague Lt. Ebou Lowe who is widely believed to have been executed. In fact, it could be recalled that in his forced televised confessions, highly criticized as a blatant miscarriage of justice, Alieu Jobe told the nation that he thought, “My friend, Lt. Sainey Mendy was arrested but was later told that he was not.” Why he would utter such an incriminating statement remains a subject of conjecture. Jobe remains at Gambia’s Mile II Central Prisons (Africa’s Hell on Earth) with a barrage of treason charges. Lt. Ebou Lowe on the other hand was arrested but reportedly escaped with several other detainees while en route to Janjangbureh Prisons among them; erstwhile NIA Director General Daba Marenah. Contrary to the official version, The Gambia Echo had reported with overwhelming evidence from whistle blowers in the brutal regime that Director General Daba Marenah, Lt. Ebou Lowe, 2nd.Lt.Alieu Ceesay, Regimental Sgt. Major Alpha Bah and Staff Sgt. Manlafi Corr, last seen on April 4,2006 in custody were all severely tortured and then executed in cold blood.
Reveal our sources, as if by an act of God, Lt. Sainey Mendy was blessed with a three month Platoon Commander course in Wales, United Kingdom while our investigations were still in progress. However, reveal our sources, much evidence have surfaced since Lt. Mendy’s departure for further training. Our sources cited a litany of communication paraphernalia and allegedly seditious literature collated from revolutionary rhetoric calculated to undermine the Jammeh government.
In a related development, on its Thursday January 18th, 2007 sitting, the eyebrow raising Court Martial presided by Nigerian Justice Agim heard from lead Detective Lamin Cham. Grilled by defence lawyers on damning allegations of electric torture, Detective Cham told the court that in the course of their investigations, they retrieved video and audiocassettes and a copy of an Arabic text from Omar Faal Keita the occult consultant on the alleged coup plot, also charged with treason. The text said the embattled Detective Cham, had a list of names among them: Captain Bunja Darboe, Famara Jammeh, Yahya Darboe, Cpt. Abdoukarim Jah, Lt. Sainey Mendy, Cpt. Pharing Sanyang, Modou Alieu Bah and Cpt. Wassa Camara. In an apparent tactical move, Detective Cham was quick to add that while Lt. Mendy’s name was on the list, he was not charged. This testimony argued our sources constitutes perjury on the part of Detective Cham because there is evidence aplenty, that Lt. Mendy cannot escape Jammeh’s wrought once he returned. According to our sources, Detective Cham consciously misled the Court Martial into believing that Lt. Mendy was innocent. “Mendy’s lonely impunity” argues our sources “is that at the time the list was found, he had already left for the UK.”
Says a source at the Department of State for Justice, “we are inundated with potentially incriminating evidence daily from the NIA on the aborted March 21, 2006 coup and it is more probable than otherwise, that more security officers may be indicted.” Asked if they too will be tried through the regular courts or by court martial, our source said “that was up to them, since they give directives and we just follow instructions; but from experience, the soldiers may face their man, Agim.”
As we went to press, the debate is whether Lt. Sainey Mendy will be as stubborn as his erstwhile superior Major Khalipha Bajinka who defied logic and returned to The Gambia only to narrowly escape death the very fateful night of July 22, 2006 that he returned from Jagi College, Kaduna state, Nigeria. Major Bajinka now lives in Senegal.
Editor's Note: "Caution is a most valuable asset in fishing, especially if you are the fish.”