By Omar Bah
The mother of Lt. Col. Lamin Sanneh, the former Gambian soldier who was killed during the foiled 30 December 2014 attack on State House, has demanded explanation from Jammeh for detaining her for a crime she did not commit.
Meita Njie, who was speaking recently at the Victims Center said in the wake of the coup attempt and perhaps even after killing her son, Jammeh detained her for nearly 9 months at the NIA without telling her the crime she committed.
She said when Col. Sanneh was killed during the attack, Jammeh ordered his men to arrest his brother who was in Kiang.
“When they arrested him he was tortured and forced to tell them my whereabouts and that was how they found me. This is why I said I cannot forgive or reconcile unless Jammeh tells me the reason why he put me in jail,” she said.
She said during her illegal detention, she contaminated pneumonia among other diseases which she is still battling with “because I slept on the floor for 8 months and 25 days.”
Meanwhile, Mamudou Njie, a relative of Alhagie Jaja Nyass who also lost his life in the attack, said most of their relatives were also subjected to arrest and detention at the NIA for several months.
He said what Jammeh’s victims need in this material time is help. “I must say the communication between the victims and government must be improved. We need information from the government, especially the victims’ dead bodies. It is about a year now since they were exhumed and we need to know what is happening. We need the dead bodies for proper burial,” he urged.
