(Jollofnews) – Another member of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) has died in state custody three months after his arrest and incaceration at the Mile Two prisons.
Solo Krummah, a father of nine, is said to have died on Saturday at the Edward Francis’s Small Teaching Hospital in Banjul after going under the knife for an undisclosed illness.
The state is yet to notify his family about his death.
Mr Krummah of Sandu Darsilameh village, Upper River Region (URR) was arrested in May for protesting against the arrest and detention of his party’s executive members.
He is the second UDP supporter to die in custody since the Gambian regime began its crackdown on the party in April.
“The circumstances surrounding his medical condition leading to his admission and the subsequent actions undertaken by his jailers remain unknown to his immediate family and the UDP as both were repeatedly denied access to him throughout his stay in state custody,” said Aji Mariama Secka, deputy party leader and secretary-general of the UDP.
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“During the period of his admission at the hospital, he was denied visits as well as food from both the family and party members. There were security officials around him throughout, three or two armed soldiers and two prison guards. Neither the family nor the party consented to any form of treatment that was either performed or withheld throughout his time in jail or at the hospital.
Lawyers representing the UDP are trying to determine the exact cause of Mr Krummah’s death as well as make affirmative demands for the state to immediately and unconditionally surrender his body to his family for proper burial.”
Until his death, Mr Krummah was the UDP deputy chairman in Sandu Constituency and headed the party in his native village.
Meanwhile, the UDP has revealed that its party members who are languishing in detention protesting against the regime of President Yahya Jammeh are in need of urgent medical treatment as a result of severe torture that was inflicted on them after their arrest by security officials
“The situation is especially grave for detainees battling chronic and debilitating conditions that require constant supervised treatment and medication,” the party said.
“Others like Lamin Dibba who sustained a serious eye injury from violence inflicted by the police requires urgent specialised care to save his sight as well as female detainees who were subjected to horrendous torture and abuse require immediate medical attention.
“UDP holds the Gambia government entirely responsible for the death of Solo Krummah as well as the fate of all the detainees they continue to subject to medieval barbarism by intentionally inflicting bodily harm and then steadfastly withhold urgent lifesaving medical interventions to induce death or prolong suffering.
“We call on all Gambians and by extension the broader international community to hold the Gambia government accountable for its wanton and criminal endangering of the lives of the gallant prisoners of conscience they are unjustly holding on to. To injure and willfully deny medical attention to a state prisoner resulting in death or prolong suffering is evil and contemptible. We demand justice and freedom for the Gambian people and we shall get it sooner or later.”
