Breaking News: Kanyiba Kanyi & Rambo Jatta Alive At Sare Ngai Police Station

By Ebrima G. Sankareh & Pateh Kinteh

After one year of police lies and unconscionable perjury by Gambian state lawyers and security personnel that Yahya Jammeh’s utterly criminal government neither had custody nor inkling as to the whereabouts of famed political duo Messrs: Ousman Rambo Jatta and Kanyiba Kanyi, we are please to report that both men are alive and held captive at the newly found Concentration Camp at Sare Ngai police station in The Gambia’s Upper River Region 300 km off the capital, Banjul.

This rude awakening came in the wake of the recent surprising visit by three staff of the renowned human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Saturday October 6, 2007, part of their practical assignments as professional human rights defenders. 

The trio: Ms. Tania Bernath, Mr. Ayodele Ameen both of Amnesty International (AI) UK and their local Gambian contact Mr. Yahya Dampha went on a trip up-country as part of the organization’s routine human rights assessment of countries suspected of gross human rights violations which The Gambia has been since President Yahya Jammeh seized power on July 22, 1994. Two journalists, Editor of the privately owned daily Point Newspaper, Deyda Hydara and Omar Barrow of a local FM Radio station were both shot by security personnel and to date, no enquiry has been set up to investigate their deaths. On April 10-11, 2000 over a dozen schoolchildren who were protesting the death of a student in police hands were massacred after President Jammeh who was visiting Castro’s Cuba, ordered the security chiefs to “kill all those bastards.” In the end, the defactor Gambian Parliament decreed an Indemnity Bill that went into law at supersonic speed indemnifying from criminal prosecution all those soldiers who were complicit.

            Likewise the fate of numerous others. Famed Gambian barrister Ousman Sillah affectionately called the dean of the Gambian Bar, was shot at by unknown gunmen in December 2004 and now lives in exile with tales of a missing kidney. Agents of the all to pervasive and notorious NIA picked up journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh since September 2006 and to date, no one except, President Jammeh and his thuggish regime knows the exact whereabouts of Chief Manneh.

Like Kanyi and Jatta, Chief Manneh’s incommunicado detention has brought untold misery to his family especially, when news came last week that an ex-inmate believes that the intrepid reporter may have been murdered by security agents at Mile II Prisons (Africa’s Hell on Earth) who were overheard telling prisoner Manneh that “you are not to fit to live for a day longer.” The West African Community court of justice under the auspices of The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has since filed a writ of Habeas corpus on behalf Chief Manneh but President Jammeh’s government true to its character, remains mute over the matter.  

Like Manneh, before their arrest and subsequent detention, both Jatta and Kanyi were responsible Gambians. Ousman Rambo Jatta of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) was a duely elected Ward Councilor for Old Cape Ward, Bakau, in the Kanifing Municipal Council, and Mr. Kanyiba Kanyi also a UDP stalwart was a Project Officer for the Catholic Relief Services Gambian office. Before they ended up at Sare Ngai, the duo were detained at various undisclosed locations. At Sare Ngai, part of the daily routine is to brew China Green Tea (Attaya) for police officers, their village concubines and other local dignitaries. And that was exactly what the AI staff found them doing at the Sare Njai Police Station, a village in the eastern fringes of The Gambia’s Upper River Region.

According to our sources, this particularly, angered the Gambian security units which eventually, led to the arrest of the human rights activists at Basse where they intended to rest for that night before proceeding to Fatoto the next day.

Since their arrest they have been transferred to different facilities before they ended up at force headquarter in Banjul. Various stakeholders intervened and bail was granted after intense diplomatic pressure but their passports remained seized by the Gambian police. They returned this morning (Tuesday) to the Banjul’s Serious Crimes Unit expecting to be charged or have their documents back but to no avail. Serious Crimes Unit sources revealed to The Gambia Echo that the accused persons, Ms.Tania Bernath, Mr. Ayodele Ameen and Mr. Yaya Dampha, reported at around 10 'O' Clock am and were seated there until midday before they were told to leave the Police Headquarters and report back on Thursday.