By Mafugi Ceesay
A TRRC witness Thursday said rich Malian conman, Foutanga Babani Sissoko, had confided in him that he [Babani] had resisted an attempt by former president Yahya Jammeh to assassinate Kukoi Sanyang in Mali.
Alhagie Gaye, an ex-soldier and a victim of the NIA, yesterday explained to the truth commission how his interaction with Babani accorded him the opportunity to learn from him about Jammeh’s plans to dispatch a killer squad to Mali to hunt-down the 1981 coup leader.
The witness said the Malian had told him that the assassin team woud’ve been harboured in one of his properties in Mali but he was able to thwart the operations by going against the plan.
Torture
Gaye recalled sometime in August, the NIA knocked on his door in the early hours of the morning, arrested him, and took him to their headquarters in Banjul where he was detained for 3 days. He said he was transferred to the NIA post in Tanji only to be mercilessly tortured for five hours.
“Those who tortured me were Omar Jallow alias Oya, Pajero, Malick Jatta. Because of their beatens, I had scars on my head.” On whether Batch Sowe, Lamin Cham, Louis Gomez and Ousman Bojang were complicit in his torture, he responded in the affirmative.
“I called the 4th day, a D-Day because I was told that Yahya Jammeh’s cousin or uncle would join us in Tanji. It was at this point I realised that Yahya Jammeh knew something about my case.”
He said Jalimakam told him that Abdoulie Wade paid Kukoi 100,000,000 CFA to topple Yahya Jammeh’s government. However the man who was given the money only gave Kukoi 10,000,000.
He added that as a result of that, Kukoi said his people would not move, adding that he was told that they wanted to hire commandos to storm Banjul.
On the impact of the torture, he said his bones have problems. “I also have ulcer because of lack of food while at the NIA and I also limp.”
