By Tabora Bojang
Serign Omar Faal, a marabout, yesterday told the TRRC that a member of ex-president Jammeh’s hit squad, the Junglers, Malick Jatta attempted to cut off his head during a long and harsh interrogation by a team of security officers to extract ‘false confession’ from him following his arrest in the aftermath of the Ndure Cham attempted coup in 2006.
The Jammeh government foiled the planned coup on March 21 2006 and arrested over dozen suspected plotters, including civilians while the mastermind, army chief of staff Ndure Cham fled.
Faal, who was accused of being the marabout praying for the success of the coup, said he was arrested by a team comprising NIA and Junglers, who took him to Banjul at the NIA headquarters and severely tortured him to confess his involvement in the coup.
He said after days of interrogation by a panel, which included former army chief Lang Tombong Tamba and former IGP and Minister of the Interior Ousman Sonko, he still refused to give a false confession. He said he was taken away by a team of junglers who were apparently drunk.
“Malick Jatta was among them. He tied my hands and attempted to cut off my head. I initially thought he was joking but when he took a knife out, put it on my neck and started cutting and blood oozing, I realised he was serious about it. He was smelling of alcohol and as he started cutting, someone intervened and asked him to stop which I believed was Serign Salieu Mbacke,” Faal recalled.
He further alleged that Jatta had confessed to his colleagues that ex-president Jammeh was going to give him D4 million had he succeeded in his attempt to slaughter him.
He said another Jungler, Sanna Manjang, had also attempted to cut off his ears but he too stopped short of carrying that act.
The witness also alleged that Jatta used a cutlass to forcibly cut off his beards and shaves, which brought tears in his eyes.
“Another Jungler who I later came to know as Ismaila Jammeh, also placed me on a brick slab and he started hurting my legs while Alagie Martin took a plastic bag, wrapped it over my head, took a hammer and hit me on my head,” Faal told the commission.
The witness told the commission that he was called by the former accountant general, Alieu Jobe who was also arrested in connection with the coup and one Abdou Doune. He said both of them told him they had staged a coup which failed and that he should help their leader Col. Ndure Cham to escape.
He said he asked them to give out charity of two rams, which they did, and he also gave them a charm, which was handed over to Col. Ndure Cham as he left the country ‘unnoticed’.
“Abdou came on another day and said he has a meeting in Bissau but the government said nobody should leave the country except when permitted. I gave him some charms and he was granted clearance to leave,” the witness said. He further stated that Alieu Jobe called him and informed him that the arrested soldiers are set to appear on TV and further asked him to help pray for other soldiers who were part of the coup but not yet arrested.
“Alieu Jobe mentioned Tumbul Tamba, Lang Tombong Tamba and Musa Jammeh, to be those soldiers. However, I was shocked to later realise that while Alieu Jobe was calling me, he was already arrested by the NIA and he was the one who traced my location for the officers to arrest me,” the witness said. He said it was also interesting for him to realise that these names mentioned to him to have needed his prayers were the very people he met as part of an investigation panel to investigate the coup plot.
