By Tabora Bojang
Major Lamin K Sanyan,g the public relations officer of the Gambia Armed Forces has described as misleading and unfair the comments made about the Gambian army by Omar Jallow, OJ at the TRRC .
The former minister in the PPP regime that was overthrown by the APRC Junta told the TRRC that Africa has two enemies – her people in uniform and intellectuals adding that he never supported the formation of an army in the Gambia because they consist of people who have failed socially in the system and they become envious of those who made it in society.
Responding to these comments in a Standard interview, Major Sanyang said OJ’s remarks are deceitful, unfair and shows his lack of education with the role of the Gambia Armed Forces.
According to Sanyang, the establishment of GAF was a decision taken by the Gambian people necessitated by their own assessment of the need for a force with a mandate to preserve the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.
“The Gambia Armed Forces is not an institution of failures who are envious of the citizenry. We are not mediocre and we have people who are responsible and have taken up responsible positions in the society,” Sanyang said.
Sanyang explained that most of the people who joined the forces are motivated with the ultimate desire to defend and protect the territorial integrity of the Gambia.
“People left lucrative jobs to join the army because they feel like this is where they belong. Do you categorise them as uneducated and unsuccessful? If you have failed in the society, there is no way you can get enrolled in the army. With what?” Major Sanyang quizzed.
He said the army would not hide the fact that it had lapses in connection to human rights violations during Jammeh’s regime with a classical example of the junglers.
“Even in the civil society, there could be a few black sheep out there but I do not think it would be correct to stereo type the whole family according to the wrongs of one member.”
The GAF PRO said in demonstrating its constitutional mandate, immediately after Yahya Jammeh left the country the army arrested most of these junglers who were in the Gambia without any instructions from anyone all in a bid to correct the wrongs of the past.
GAF have metamorphosed and has become more professional with fully trained personnel in all kind of fields from legal experts to engineers, medical doctors, educators and maritime and air force experts most of whom are university graduates, he said.
Sanyang said that CDS Masaneh Kinteh has a great vision and he is professionally and tirelessly working on a reform processes to meet its constitutional mandate.
