By Mafugi Ceesay
Lamin Ceesay, son of a witch hunt survivor in Barra, has claimed that he was gun-pointed by one Captain Omar Jallow, former member of the Yahya Jammeh hit-squad who ordered him to face the east and say his last prayers.
Ceesay, a retired headmaster, said captain Jallow first escorted him to a small room in Fort-Bullen at Barra where he showed him a pistol, asking him to interpret what his [Captain Jallow’s] action meant.
He said he told Captain Jallow he [Ceesay] could not interpret that. He said Captain Jallow then pressed a gun on his neck and threatened to shoot him in the presence of the escort team of witch-hunters and the then OC of Barra, Omar Jawo.
Mr. Ceesay said he first encountered Captain Jallow when he went to rescue his 80-year-old parents from the witch hunters.
“Just when I came close to my parents [Lalo Ceesay and Binta Drammeh] at the village Bantaba, I was intercepted by Captain Jallow who asked why I was there. Jallow told me that they are acting on the orders of Yahya Jammeh to apprehend witches and cure them. I told him they should rather cure their own parents. He then said I was insulting the president and started assaulting me with other soldiers including Omar Jawo,” he told the TRRC in Barra.
He said during his confrontation with Jallow, some of the alleged witches they arrested fled the scene. Ceesay said he was later arrested and taken along with the others to Fort-Bullen where he met the former Chief of Lower Niumi Alhagie Tabora Manneh.
Meanwhile another witness, Amie Njie, a widow, told the TRRC that Yahya Jammeh is responsible for the death of her husband Lamin Sonko. She said her husband died as a result of the activities of the witch doctors. The sittings continue.
