By Tabora Bojang
The Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Mamat Cham, has said detained army general Bora Colley is still “accountable” to military command.
The alleged jungler who had been in exile since the fall of Jammeh in 2017 returned to the country unnoticed and turned himself in after more than seven years on the run.
The general remains under military detention since his arrest over a week ago and has not been charged or arraigned.
The government has set up a joint panel consisting of the army, police, intelligence services and Ministry of Justice to investigate him.
Amnesty International West and Central Africa issued a statement welcoming his arrest and urged the Gambian authorities to respect his right to a fair trial.
Responding to concerns over the general’s indefinite detention beyond the Constitutional provision of 72 hours, CDS Cham argued during Friday’s Mansa Kunda program: “As a soldier, you are subjected to the national laws and the military law. Bora is a deserter from the armed forces, so he is still accountable to command for what he has done.”
Plea for dissidents to return
Since 2021, several security personnel implicated in series of crimes have returned to the country including the former powerful State Guard commander General Saul Badjie. But several other alleged junglers remain at large.
“We want to use this forum to call upon other dissidents who are hiding in the woods and maybe living in very pitiful lives to return and subject themselves to whatever charges or allegations that are made against them. Gambia is a rule of law country and nobody’s life will be in jeopardy but you have something to answer to the law,” CDS Cham stated.
No consequence on national security
Since General Colley’s return, several Gambians including human rights activist Madi Jobarteh have questioned his undetected entry into the country describing it as an exposure of The Gambia’s security loopholes.
But CDS Cham dismissed these suggestions, saying “we are in full control of the security and whether General Bora or anybody else in that category that comes in, should pose no concerns for the citizens.”
He also dismissed suggestions that there was insufficient vigilance on the side of the security to warrant Bora’s undetected entry.
“It is not due to lack of vigilance,” CDS Cham argued. “The border is very porous. We have about 900km and most of it there is no security presence. So anybody can enter into any village around the border and come into the country,” he argued.
He said the general was “forced to surrender” himself as soon as he realised the “loop will go onto him.”
