By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor in- Chief

Unassailable sources from the Gambian Department of State for The Interior reveal that Gambian journalist Fatou Jaw Manneh is under NIA custody following her arrest early this week. Reveal our competent sources, her arrest follows a tip off to the notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA), apparently by some wicked persons most likely some passengers aboard the same flight that Ms. Jaw was headed home for vacation. No sooner had the plane touched down in Banjul, than she was apprehended and whisked to NIA's Banjul Headquarters at Marena Parade. Predictably, she has since been under going a regime of grueling interrogations. “She is a very strong woman and remains totally unrepentant for what she said and she is an impressive defender of human rights,” reveal our Interior sources. I wish all Gambians were like Ms. Jaw a senior NIA officer told The Echo on conditions of strong confidentiality. “She is totally unrepentant and unshaken by our questioning” said the source.

Jaw as she is affectionately called is a US Resident and a close observer of political events in the West African state as well as an astute commentator on some of the regime’s excesses. Unlike most other Gambians who easily forget about the plight of their country once immersed in Western luxuries, Ms. Fatou Jaw Manneh has never forgotten her homeland and the wrongs perpetrated by the tyrannical regime of President Yahya Jammeh. Over the years, she has written numerous articles and commentaries on the plight of Gambian journalists as well as the utterly criminal character of the Jammeh regime. Her arrest is testament to Yahya Jammeh’s intolerance to dissent and a tribute to her uncompromising disposition to press freedom.

            Fatou Jaw Manneh who resides in the Washington/Maryland area had worked at the Gambian Daily Observer in the pre-1994 coup years before she immigrated to the United States for advanced studies. Even then, she was an acerbic critic of the Jawara regime and those of us who worked with her cannot recall a single incident with the NSS, the predecessor to the notorious NIA.

            For now though we crave for the intervention of the US Embassy in Banjul, the much respected Paris based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) all press freedom originations, Amnesty International and to all those committed to freedom. We also challenge Gambian politicians like lawyer Ousainou Darboe of the UDP, Hamat Bah of the NRP, Omar Jallow, Sedia Jatta, Lamin Waa Juwara and Halifa Sallah of NADD to petition the dictator for Ms. Fatou Jaw Manneh’s unconditional release from the hands of the murderous NIA. We ask Gambian local newspapers to give Jaw’s arrest and illegal detention all the coverage it deserves. While we wish her the best, we ask her to remain strong because the future governs with a golden finger.