President Jammeh’s Gov’t. A Disaster- OJ,
Tales of Torture & Intimidation
By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-in-Chief
In an hour-long exclusive phone interview with veteran Gambian politician and human rights crusader Omar Amadou Jallow from his hotel lounge in Enugu State, Northern Nigeria, he described the Jammeh government as the dawn of cataclysmic gloom on Gambia’s democratic landscape. The Gambia deserves a better leader than Yahya Jammeh and certainly a better system of government than his heavy handed APRC regime with clutches of tyranny written all over its face. The much-respected politician and veteran human rights campaigner ever since the khaki boys struck on that fateful Friday July 22, 1994 recounts gruesome tales of torture and intimidation that he suffered under the Jammeh government that sent him to jail more than twenty times since seizing power. “I personally believe that there is nothing more criminal than a military’s overthrow of a democratically elected constitutional government with the legitimacy to rule and that is exactly what Yahya Jammeh did to The Gambia on July 22, 1994” he said. “Mr. Sankareh you were there, at the NIA on July 29, 1994 when Yahya Jammeh visited my detained Cabinet colleagues and I; and you know that I have never wavered in my attitude towards his illegal overthrow of the P.P.P. I am much more embolden in my belief and resolve that Yahya Jammeh’s coming to power was ominous and the human rights situation since that year offers tangible testimony to that” argues OJ as he is affectionately called.
Mr. Jallow, a phenomenally eloquent politician who exudes both charisma and charm has served as MP for Serekunda East for about two decades, was once Under Secretary at The Gambia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry before he climaxed to the Cabinet post of Water Resources Minister and later Agriculture. He is a fierce critic of the human rights excesses of the Jammeh government both during the transition to constitutionality and thereafter. In an effort to unseat Jammeh democratically, he entered into an alliance called NADD-the National Alliance for Democracy & Development in The Gambia, which at its maturation witnessed the withdrawal of some parties following a power struggle that narrowly bottle-cracked this once viable alternative to Jammeh. Hon. Jallow was reacting to unsubstantiated yet damning reports that, he has mended fences with Jammeh following a conclave with deposed President Sir Dawda K. Jawara. The allegations intimate that part of the deal was to return all of Mr. Jallow’s seized properties and all monies incurred during the tenure that those properties were leased out by the government.
However, according to OJ, there is no scintilla of truth to the rumor and the press report. The rumor and the press reports are the works of some malicious and probably very ignorant elements of who he is, he said. “I therefore want to make it abundantly clear that no journalist, no politician and certainly no amount of money or inducement or coercion can make me stray from the noble cause of justice for my beloved country and no one can stain my credibility” he said emphatically. He went on, “I have been against Yahya Jammeh from July 22nd. 1994 and I will continue to do so even if that means the inevitable. My belief is stronger today than ever before after seeing what a derailment of the Rule of Law, human rights and free expression caused The Gambia under Yahya Jammeh’s tyrannical rule. I have been arrested and detained more than 20 times, in most cases no trial; I am the only opposition member that Jammeh sent to prison more than 20 times and in most instances I was subjected to severe torture, harassment and degradation but such excesses gruesome as they are, have only strengthen my resolve that no system is comparable to a democratic dispensation where freedom, peace, due process and the sanctity of human life are respected. The system in The Gambia is a travesty of justice and I can never be a party to it.”
Despite claims to the contrary, OJ said he was still a member of the NADD Executive and will continue to be effective and committed to its principles and will zealously pursue its objectives of establishing a genuine and sustainable democratic culture in The Gambia.
On the insinuation that his trip to Nigeria may have been part of the alleged fence-mending package, Mr. Jallow called it “nonsense.” According to OJ, since the July 1994 coup he has never worked with Jammeh or his governments- military and civilian despite numerous invitations, grandiose packages of inducements, temptations that some of my colleagues could not resist. To set the records, I want my detractors to know that I have the honour to competently handle the following assignments without consulting any person in Jammeh’s government viz:
Consultant: Food &Agriculture Organization of the United Nations from 1998-99, Accra, Ghana; UN Transitional Administration, Deli, East Timor from 1999-2001; assignment for the Common Wealth, Harare Zimbabwe, 2002; Victoria, Seychelles, 2006 and most recently Nigeria, as part of the Common Wealth delegation comprising 12 eminent personalities led by Justice Wariba ex-Prime Minister of Tanzania. Therefore, argues OJ, for any one to insinuate that I am in collusion with Yahya Jammeh the person is either mischievous or totally ignorant of how deeply immersed I am in a culture of democracy, Rule of Law and respect for fundamental human rights. Moreover, since I am one of the most accessible politicians to the press corps, such irresponsible and scurrilous statements could have been averted before their publications. No Gambian journalist can say that I have denied him access and that really makes me wonder if there was no ulterior motive behind the whole affair. Mr. Jallow who was the Common Wealth Observer in charge of Enugu State returns to The Gambia Sunday and would want all journalists who are in doubt to call him. THE END