(JollofNews) – A magistrate court in the Gambian capital, Banjul, Thursday granted a government request to issue a warrant for the arrest of former Interior minister Ousman Sonko, who is currently detained by Swiss authorities.
A warrant has also been issued for the arrest of six other senior military officials and close associates of former president Yahya Jammeh including General Sulayman (Saul) Badjie, Ex-Colonel Solo Bojang, Major Sanna Manjang, General Bora Colley, Colonel Kawsu Camara aka Bombardier and Major Nuha Badjie.
The men are said to have allegedly taken part in the killings and other criminal activities against Gambians during Mr Jammeh’s regime including the murder of Journalist Deyda Hydara of The Point Newspaper in December 2004.
Mr Jammeh who governed the Gambia for 22 years was booted out power in January 2017 after a shock defeat in the presidential election by opposition candidate Adama Barrow. He is currently living in exile in Equatorial Guinea with his wife and family as part of a deal brokered by regional group, Ecowas.
He ruled the small west African country with an iron fist and during his last year in power, his regime is said to have committed many human rights abuses with impunity including enforced disappearances, arrest, torture and murder of political opponents resulting in the creation of a more restrictive environment for Gambians in the country including journalists and government critics.
As part of the warrant, police have instructed all security apparatus in the country to ‘arrest the men wherever they may be and produce them before the court to stand trial’.
The general public has also been asked to report the sighting of any of the men to the nearest police station for their immediate arrest.
The net is closing at last. When will The Gambia university retract the doctrait and professorship from Jameh just as many people (including Mugabe ) got doctoraits withdrawn for human rights abuses. When will Jameh be taken to the ICC. ?
One of down grading frequently used statements that foreign news papers used to describe our beloved country is the word SMALL. Why can’t our journalists stop using that ward . Gambia is a country like any other and found it belittling a remark that tends make one feels unfit to exist and described as a nation state.
PLEASE BEGIN REFRAIN FROM UNDERMINING OUR EXISTENCE thank you.
I will send African criminals to Ghana Conakry Lagos or any other African countries but never handover any brothers to white mans justice @fake ICC because they will never ever do the same we still waiting for some of them,,war crimes ,, Africa need own words own ICC it’s a shame
LETTER TO WHITE MEN…BY ROBERT MUGABE
~
Dear white men, U asked us to wear coats under
hot sun, we did;
~
U said we should speak your language, we have
obediently ignored ours.
~
U asked us to always tie a rope around our necks
like goats, we have obeyed without questioning.
~
U asked our ladies to wear dead people’s hair
instead of the natural hair God gave to them, they
have obeyed.
~
U said we should marry just one woman in the
midst of plenty black angels, we reluctantly
agreed.
~
You asked us to use rubber in order to control
our birth rate, we agreed…..
~
Now U want our MEN to sleep with fellow MEN &
WOMEN with fellow WOMEN so that God would
punish us like Sodom and Gomora?
we say No!!
We don’t agree with U this time! Proudly African,
we say a huge NO to GAY relationships and
LESBIANISM.
~
If U say NO to GAYISM & LESBIANISM …. Share with your friends (LIFE GOES ON, MY PADDY) Ha ha ha
I agree to your message to the white. God will punish any Nation that accept such nonsense.
“peace” u obviously forgot to take u daily dose of tablets today
They should be all arrested for their evil deeds. Yahya Jammeh and many of his officers close to him should be arrested immediately. Let them face Justice.
Agree with you , they should have to pay the price,Paying the injustice they have been is justice for all, but sending them to the ICC is pure cowardice and lack of independent of the African leaders ,
Righteous Man,
How righteous are you? Have you forgotten, that the same injustices were meted out at our citizens when Ex-President JawarA, BB Darbo, Ex-President Abdou Diouf, Omar Jallow(OJ) and all the defunct PPP enablers commandeered the Senegalese forces to invade our country in 1981 and kill, maim, illegally arrest, imprison, rape our people?
Will justice be done to those people and their families?
Kukoi (Kufing) samba Sanyang tried to grab power by force of arms just like the armed bandit Jammeh and his gangsta boys did, there was chaos, shooting everywhere , many lost their lives or got injured as a result of the carnage. Help came from our Senegalese brothers who restored peace. Stop the propaganda and twisting the truth. I was a teenager and remembered the madness that went on in the rainy season of 1981. The PPP regime did not kill, torture and rape our women , this is why they can walk the streets of Gambia with their heads held up high unlike the barbaric APRC regime. Like it or not APRC will never command the sort of respect the PPP regime had in Gambia and around the world. Not saying it was a perfect regime but certainly nowhere near tyrannical as the gansta regime Gambians got rid of.
you are stupid Babu soli. what Yahya Jammeh have done in this country is inhuman. he is a evil and he should be even be kill.
Justice is justice for all no one excluded, be it Jawara, bb dabo, oj, yaya jameh, saul bajie or whoever. Mr x did crime x y z n got away with it does not make that crime legal.
Jammeh n co has to face justice just like anyone else.
If Jawara n co did what u said let them face justice. I witnessed n worked in Jawara’s
regime just like i worked in Jammeh’s regime n i see the difference.
No good person should try to defend any criminal by trying to distract or current attention!!!
Asalam love you all!!!
The net is closing and I think the realisation has reached the four corners of the country, that untold misery had dawn on us for for 2 decades. People have now awaken to the reality of jammeh’s violent rule. For long the stories about fellow citizens deaths and disappearance was awarded deaf ear by fellow citizens. Dismissed as either “enemies of Islam” or western propaganda. That Jammeh killed his own cousin brother Haruna Jammeh was cold-bloodedly brushed aside by his wider family, the Jola fraternity and the wider Gambian society. No wonder Babu Soli classified, on a separate forum, the killing of Sandeng, Deyda Hydara, Chief Manneh, Koro Ceesay, Ebou Lowe etc as an act of “self defence”. That holding a transparent on a public place justified summarily execution without “due process” is acceptable.
Janjani,
You are telling LIES. The PPP government did worst than Kukoi. The complete lack odf democratic delivery instigated Kukoi to rise against a nepotic government. Kukoi wanted to save a destitute government from sinking further. The PPP regime invited the banditry neocolonialist Senegalese forces to kill, maim, rape and detain our people. They came to save Jawara alone not the Gambia. Stop your silly assertions.
I bet you, one day this untold and hidden heinous act of genocide meted out to our people by the Senegalese at the command of Jawara, Diouf, BB Darbo, OJ and the PPP clique of mercenaries will be brought to book.
Had want to save a destitute government from sinking further so he stalked some innocent police officers on duty and shot them dead to break into an armoury.
He then proceeded to the radio to box on the mike desks, “bang! long live my dunderhead, bang! down with your well-beings, bang! long live all rubbish”
What a wicked, primitive and unskilled human being he was.
God knows where he belongs.
Well, if what you allege has any substance Babu Soli, Yaya Jammeh would have pursued that course of action against Jawara and his ministers. He (Jammeh) was desperate to pin something on them to justify the coup.
The commission set up to prove corruption against ministers could find nothing of substance, not because there was no corruption, but because they were not leaving any paper trails.
Yaya Jammeh is no fan of Senegal and he had two decades to expose the alleged “crimes” of Senegal in The Gambia. He failed to do so because there was no substance to such a claim, unless you have another explanation for us, which I’m sure, many will be interested in.
So tell us why Yaya Jammeh did not expose the Jawara/Joof crimes in 1981.
You hit the nail on the head! I am very interested in seeing an answer to that very question. 22 years was really ample time to unearth the supposedly crimes committed by Jawara/Joof while reinstating the democratically elected govt of the Gambia in 1981.
You Babu Soli you are a jola. jolas are the problem in Gambia and Senegal. if i am the elected president. i will rube clear you on this earth surface
I can bet, sick head =Peace#, Robert Mugabe and the likes are all failing to prove a man in their private room domestic affairs. Why should people like Robert disagree any further with the white man after confessing that he has obeyed them to goat about like a goat with a rope around his neck?
Guess how many neo-colonialists go about shouting Pan Africans with their fake *** *****. Under the table ******** ***** on payroll advertising contracts. Hitler was a **** ******* too but did the most super macho man show off. He was obviously busted because his so-called wife has lived her life in the worst abominable nightmares any woman dream of. Perhaps Robert Mugabe has founded himself a bit in constrast but who knows his levels now. Hahahaha!
Zimbabweans now suffer the same guarded words that Gambians are recovering from. Prejudice against anyone’s skin tone or lifestyle is so medieval and lacking more than one brain cell. These people live and breath in a dark corner of the human Mind. Free Yourselves from mental slavery !!!! Travel, unleash your locked potential and fettered chains of dimness.
Bax,
Haven’t you read: let sleeping dogs lie, bury the hatchet, let by gones be by gones, good fences make good neighbours; and all those proverbial comments that most of the WISE apply to move a given situation/condition towards desirable targets.
President Jammeh equally apllied the same dictum when he brought Ex-President Jawara and family back. That was the wisest and most progressive decision President Jammah had ever made–let Ex-President Jawara and all his clique of VERY BAD BOYS work scot free, immune from all their atrocities and work to improve the improverished country he inherited instead of chasing the criminals. It was an act of magnanimity. That’s why he succeeded in achieving his development goals. Though I didn’t share President Jammeh decision at the time, apparently I realised it was the best to move ahead.
Barrow and his henchmen may continue to witch hunt the APRC affiliates, arrest, imprison, silence, intimidate and even annihilate them. That’s up to them. We have no fear. Their apprehensive behaviour will never make us surrender to an administration that has already shown the true colours of her incompetence and corruptive/tribalist/influence peddling attitudes. Until we regain the mantle of leadership we’ll keep firm to our achieving our goals through responsible opposition.
Apart from a military coup or an arm invasion from casamance, I think your dream of regaining the mantle of leadership in Gambia shall remain a dream. I beg to remind that the country has had enough of you and Aprc or whatever new clothes you may put on in the future. After kukoi and Jammeh experiments, I believe such a interruption will not come to pass in the Gambia again. The foundations are being laid to that effect.
Righteous Man
MAY 21, 2017 AT 9:18 PM
” You Babu Soli you are a jola. jolas are the problem in Gambia and Senegal. if i am the elected president. i will rube clear you on this earth surface”
I don’t answer farfetched, irresponsible, rude, uncultured, uncouthed statements. May the Almighty Allah(SWT) give you back what you desire for the Jolas!
A very welcome news from our home land. Bringing those deemed to have committed atrocities against our people to justice is the right step in the right direction as there can never be any meaningful reconciliation without first correcting some of the wrongs done to our people. Those responsible for the death of Deyda Hydara, Chief Manneh, Korro Ceesay and many other outstanding citizens in the most cruel fashion should be brought to justice regardless of their political affiliations, tribe or gender. We can’t build a strong, peaceful and progressive society with evil killers, human rights violators, rapist and thieves in our midst. These people should be made to pay as burying the hatchet with them will build no fences, but break down the only fence that Gambia is known for, and that is being the smiling coast of Africa.
I commend President Barrow and his government for their restraint, their measured approach in dealing with this dark chapter of our nation’s history. Our nation was challenged like never before and most of culprits are still at large or in our midst, so the allegation of witch hunt can’t be any further from the truth.We had witness the irresponsible and erratic decision makings during the despotic rule of Jammeh. The daily sackings of government employees, the arbitrary arrests and detentions of those deemed opponents, the force disappearances of perceived enemies, the pilfering of our state coffers, the tortures, the rapes, the appropriation of private properties from the rightful owners to the families, friends and cronies of the regime are a testament to how far we had fallen as a nation and far we have been redeemed from that dark pit by President Barrow and his government. Freedom is reigning in our homeland at last.
Our detractors will try all their dirty tricks to distract us from our noble aim of building a fair,free and progressive society and God willing they will fail and fail miserably. Those bigots with their bigotted agenda disguised as opposition with their twisted and insidious analoques, soiling the reputation of those outstanding members of this government, while daily praise singing the achievements of killers, rapist and crooks should be defeated and defeated they will be INSA ALLAH. Truth will always prevail over falsehood.
Bax,
Surely the truth will prevail. Erroneously indicting a person does not manfiest his guilt. We’ll hear more in the Gambian courts as time rolls on. We believe in clearing the air on all doubts levied on individuals and/or institutions to put our nation on the right footing as President Jammeh initiated when he flushed the PPP killer regime out of power in 1994.
But should we stop from bringing to book what that ill-fated PPP government did in 1981? In 1981, the brutal and murderous Senegalese forces invaded our nation at the command on Ex-Presidents Jawara/Diouf, BB Darbo, OJ & Co. on false proofs and attestations that it was based on bilateral treaties signed between the two countries during the late President Senghore era.
Who saw/read the articles of those treaties? Where was it mentioned in that nefastous treaty that Senegal/Gambia could use force by arms in the internal problems of the contending country?
We should be told the truth about the documents that the two presidents signed leading to the cruel and brutal invasion of our country.
We should be told the correct figures of lives lost, where the corpses were dumped.
We should be told the correct figures of those arrested and held in detention without charge, most of whom died from soffocation, contagious illnesses in detention, dehydration, hunger………
We should be told how much money was spent on the Senegalese forces and why President Jammeh gave over $1 million to Diouf.
We should be told the truth behind the sudden disintegration of the Confederation and the financial loses incurred.
So many pending questions to answer. Those who want to ignore that gruesome episode in our history are untruthful, vile and wicked far more than the President Jammeh supporters they are now hell bent on incarcerating.
A dark episode with over 800 lives cannot be ignored!
Bax, here we are faced with two alternatives. In such acts of genocide as meted in 1981, it’s either the state or the individuals concerned that should bring the cases before the law courts. If the President Jammeh government declined, the individuals concerned should have done it. However, where both parties failed, a succeeding administration through complaints brought before her should tackle/resolve the matter. I’m sure that would happen soon as there are people/groupings coming together to bring the matter up in your “democratic” Gambia. Let’s wait and see!
I am with the strong belief that the truth behind that gruesome episode will ONE DAY come to light. In Sha Allah.
Do I answer your question, Bax?
No, you haven’t answered my question. You have only made it worse for Jammeh by insinuating that he gave $1 million to Diouf. If that was in connection with whatever happened in 1981, then Jammeh is as complicit in the supposed cover up you keep alleging, as Jawara. Why didn’t he insist on what you are now calling for: a thorough investigation of the issues surrounding Senegal’s intervention in 1981, starting with the Mutual Defence Agreement that was invoked ? He had 20 years to do it. He was the one who deposed Jawara, hence if individuals concerned bring any cases before the courts, the state should have done so, if all that you allege has any substance.
Earlier, in giving me reasons why Jammeh failed to investigate alleged Senegalese killings in 1981, you alluded to letting bygones be bygones, but Jawara and some of his officials lived in exile for many years. Moreover, they and those who stayed behind voluntarily or by force, had their assets confiscated and were barred from either holding office or engaging in politics for 10 years. Some were constantly hounded by NIA Agents, following them around 24/7, whilst verbally assaulting them at every state occasion became Jammeh’s favourite past time. That doesn’t look like reconciliation and “letting bygones be bygones” to me.
Bax
Our detractors will try any ugly tricks to justify the unjustifiable. Yahya Jammeh set up a commission to look into the affairs of President Jawara and his government and did anybody know what wrongs were uncovered by that commission. Why was their findings never published? Why was the assets of the ex.ministers of President Jawara’s government confiscated without due process of the law?
This is what set President Barrow and his government apart from the devilish rein of Jammeh. We all know where Jammeh got his ill gotten wealth from, but this government still want to give due process of law its course before making any move to confiscate what rightly belong to the Gambian nation but stolen by Jammeh and his cronies. Our detractors even with the bankruptcy of their argument still deny the obvious fact that Yahya Jammeh was a cruel despot who was a curse to the Gambian nation. We shall march on till we bring to book this evil man and all his evil enablers.
Long Live President Barrow and his government
Down to hell Monster Jammeh and all his evil enablers.