Five police officers including a superintendent and an assistant superintendent have been arrested for their role in Monday’s shooting of protesters in Faraba Banta Village.At least two youths were killed and several others injured when officers of the Police Intervention Unit fired live ammunition at the villagers who were protesting against the mining of sand in their village.
Among the officers detained and also had their services suspended are Superintendent Baboucarr Cham, ASP Musa Fatty, Nuha Colley, Momodou S. Jallow and Musa Badjie.
Six villagers namely; Ousman Jassey, Sunkaru Jarju, Bakary Badjie, Salifu Darboe and Modou Kujabi are currently detained for taking part in the protest and efforts are
currently underway to grant them bail.
Police have confirmed that a number of items including two caterpillars, five trucks, police guard post and four compounds were vandalized and set on fire during the protest.
Still waiting for the investigation to get to bottom of the facts, I hope justice will play very important role in regards to this unfortunate incident.
The police killed civilians, now we hear 5 officers and 6 villagers are detained. You can’t make this up. If this is true, something is seriously wrong with those that make decisions in our country.
Explain this:
Villagers have been killed.
There is very high tension.
There is severe anxiety.
There is anger.
There is shock.
The community is on the brink of implosion.
Someone thinks the best thing to do is to pour gasoline on an already explosive situation by arresting villagers. If you are not callous, whoever made the decision must be a complete idiot and should be relieved of duty.
Thank you doctor for your concern. I think the police did the right thing by arresting any person they think could have been fueling the crisis. The villagers started the protest and the paramilitary came to stop that and in the process they acted excessively which results to the death of two people. The paramilitary should be held responsible for acting outside the armpit of the law. The ring leaders of the protest should also proof that they have permit to convene such gathering. All parties may be found to be wanting before law.
This is a very sad development and a real setback for the democratic aspirations of the new Gambia. As the head of the Truth and reparation Dr. Jallow clearly stated,it makes the situation more complex and suspecious to some observers. Could this be another attempt to sabotage the newly found political orientation by Gambians for a better and mature political dispensation? If so, may ALLAH the most gracious and all knowing foil their wicked transgressions expose the ill will in their black hearts.
The responsible authorities needs to reconstruct the incident starting from the moments before law enforcement officers were dispatched.
The police head said he did not authourities the use of life bullets.
How do we define that?
Agree that all responsible must be questioned and investigated. The issue is timing. I don’t think this is a good time to start arresting villagers. The most important thing at this time is to make good decisions, let things cool down some, and quietly investigate the entire matter. All those responsible will have to answer for their roles one way or the other.