By Lamin Cham
Aboulie Kujabi, one of the most influential figures in the early days of the Yahya Jammeh regime, has described the former Gambian leader as temperamental, impulsive, a gangster and an immature character whose madness did not spare his own family members.
Kujabi, a cousin of the former president, admitted before the TRRC that he was made intelligence officer liaising between the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and State House where his cousin called the shots.
He rose through the ranks to become director himself, even though, he admitted, he may not be the most qualified.
Kujabi began his testimony with an insight into Jammeh’s character: “Jammeh wants to be seen to be the big man and he acted exactly in that manner; he would not reason well and would often act on just hearsay.”
The former NIA director narrated how as a servant and relative he helped build Jammeh’s image, and protected people from his eccentric behaviour, when he lined them up for sacking or incarceration.
Some of these included the leading role he played in mediating the return of former president Sir Dawda Jawara in June 2002.
But like most close confidantes of Jammeh, Kujabi incurred his wrath when the dictator felt he was getting far too important. “And Jammeh has drama deeply embedded in his psyche. A few days before he moved against me, I was with him at State House, brewing tea and eating roasted meat. The next day Daba Marenah came to me with a letter deploying me as commissioner to West Coast Region on Jammeh’s instructions. I felt betrayed and angry and when I confronted him, he started saying my service was needed in Brikama more and even called my wife to say he did not think I was happy with the decision,” Kujabi told the TRRC. He said his removal from Brikama came in similar fashion. “Jammeh saw my tour party in Foni and felt jealous. He called me to say my convoy was big but I knew he was not happy. When former CDS Baboucar Jatta told him the huge welcome my tour party received in his native Tujereng, I knew Jammeh would not be happy and predictably I was removed shortly after,” Kujabi said.
He then talked about his ordeal at the hands of Jammeh which he said started with his dramatic arrest coordinated by Jammeh himself when he called him just to confirm his location after surrounding his house with soldiers. ”I was told I was being taken to the NIA but the arresting party turned into Mile 2 prisons and when I refused to alight insisting they take me to NIA, they left me in the vehicle until one prison officer persuaded me to comply. I stayed there for days before being taken to the NIA where I was horrendously tortured by Sana Manjang, Michael Corea, Musa Jammeh and Tumbul Tamba. I told the two Tambas (who are now dead) that they would not live to tell the story. If Sana Manjang had been in this country you would have heard what I would have done to him,” Kujabi said, lamenting how Manjang and others had also picked up his brother Jasadi and cousin Haruna Jammeh on the same day never to be seen again.
Kujabi said Marcie Jammeh, the sister of Haruna, was also killed because she had openly and persistently challenged Jammeh about the whereabouts of his brother. “My other siblings, Ansumana and James, were equally not spared from illegal detention and only because Jammeh heard that the people had visited an old man on their way from Casamance,” Kujabi told the TRRC.
Superstition
Kujabi who himself admitted owning a bagful of jujus at the time of his arrest, said Jammeh’s witch-hunting campaign in 2009 had resulted in so many unaccounted deaths including the alkalo of Kanilai.
Asked whether he would forgive Yahya Jammeh, Sana Manjang and others who inflicted pain and death on his family, Kujabi, who had to spend three years in exile, said that decision will be made by his family members. “But it is too difficult,” he noted with deep emotion.
Mr Kujabi, who was commended by the commissioners for being one of the most forthright witnesses at the TRRC, said he would avail himself for any reconciliation exercise.
