By Omar Bah
The spokesperson of the banned 3 Years Jotna group has said despite their proscription and ongoing troubles with the law, his group has not relented in ensuring President Barrow organise election in September and step down.
Hagi Suwareh who is released on bail along with his group’s arraigned and detained executive, told The Standard yesterday: “We will protest again to continue putting pressure on Adama Barrow to respect the [three years] agreement and call election in September in which he will not contest. We are committed to continue holding our political leaders accountable to the promises they made to the Gambian people.”
Suwareh said the Gambian leader has “no justification to cling onto power beyond 2020”, adding, “Barrow’s forming of the NPP clearly signals that we are sliding back to dictatorship.”
“As a movement,” he added,“we are still defiant and are following the petition we sent to him. We believe by refusing to adhere to the Coalition 2016 agreement he has disrespected the Gambian people and we are not ready to watch him succeed in deceiving us.”
Jail experience Suwareh and his cohorts who were remanded at Mile 2 state central prison for about a month following their violent protest in January, gave an account of his prison experience thus: “Life at Mile 2 is horrible. Not the food we eat, where we sleep…medicine.
Everything at Mile 2 is terrible. In the morning they will give us dusty breads, sometime with sticks and insects mixed with the flour. They don’t even bother to clean the plates as if they are dealing with animals. The majority of the people jailed in Mile 2 prison are young people. Some of them as young as16 years.
“The Ministers of Justice and the Interior should take time off their busy schedules to, as a matter of urgency, visit Mile 2.Prisoners are suffering. Rooms that are supposed to accommodate 15 people are allocated to over 30 people. The Junglers who confessed to killing people at the TRRC hearings were the same people escorting us during our detention at Mile 2. This is pathetic.
“The conditions at the Mile 2 prison are an indictment of the Barrow government and his predecessors – PPP to APRC.The absolute neglect and poor facilities of our prisons are so outrageous that even dogs and donkeys should not be allowed to live there. Our prisons need urgent attention because the conditions are dehumanising and a clear violation of the rights and dignity of human beings,” he added.
