Essa Faal and Lamin Bo Baaji engaged in a back and forth over illegal detention at the NIA, prompting the lawyer to forthrightly tell the former NIA director general in his face it was easy for one to sit at the TRRC and say, ‘I’m not aware’.

“It is easy for you to sit here and say I’m not aware. But you see, you’re responsible for what happened at the NIA during this period,” Faal told Mr Baaji on Thursday, who was testifying on illegal detention during his time as NIA boss back in 2008.

“What I’m not aware, I will say I’m not aware because what I will not like to happen to me I will also not like it to happen to someone else. That’s why I said I am not aware,” Baaji fired back at Faal as he testified on people who got illegally detained at the NIA when he was head of the agency.

Faal then countered: “Well you can said that but what I am trying to put to you is, this (log book) was your tool. It was your tool to monitor. You agree that if you had looked at it, you will see that illegal detentions were happening? You failed to look at it?”

Responding, Baaji simply said, ‘no’.

“Did you look at it?” a relentless Faal asked.

“I do get records about people detained but the book is not my role for me to be checking it. There are people responsible for the book,” Baaji replied.

Faal pressed further: “Mr Baaji, did you check the book or did you not check the book?”

“I did not check the book. I have said it initially that I will not say anything that is false,” Baaji responded.

Faal pressed again in a long back and forth: “Do you agree that if you had checked the book you would see that people still continued to be illegally detained?

“Yes that can happen,” Baaji replied.

The Imam Ratib of Banjul Cherno Mass Kah has explained why leaders of Islam gathered at the King Fahad Mosque to recite the Qur’an for President Adama Barrow.

The president on Wednesday toured Banjul to check the state of the roads project by his government. The president during the tour made a stop at the King Fahad Mosque where Imams had gathered to read the Qur’an.

The Imam Ratib Cherno Mass Kah told reporters: “The prophet had said if someone honours, you should honour back the person. If you cannot reciprocate the honour the same way, you should pray for the person. If you do that, it would mean as if you had returned the honor [in equal measure]. This is why we read the Quran for him, we read five books for him.

“This is to pray that wherever he intends to take the country for Allah to help you to be able to achieve it. Nothing is complicated with Allah. But all the imams in the country speak with one voice only and that’s to preach for peace and preach against conflict.”

President Adama Barrow has stated the Banjul road rehabilitation project is worth its over 40 million dollars fee, as he spent the day surveying the capital city on Wednesday.

Leading road builder Hadim Gai was last year hired by the Barrow administration to overhaul roads and the drainage system of Banjul.

The president spent Wednesday touring the capital where he told reporters he was impressed by what he has seen.

The president said: “This project is very close to my heart. I visited Banjul in 2018, Banjul was completely dilapidated. It was a situation that it’s a must for a project. With the contractor Hadim, we were able to start work in Banjul and that was [in] 2019. I inspected Banjul [in] 2019, I was really impressed and it make [sic] a big impact in the life [sic] of Banjulians. This year, it have [sic] really change [sic].

“Everybody is seeing the project now, I think the project speaks for itself. This is a project that is important, not for Banjul alone but for The Gambia. Banjul is our capital city. We cannot afford to ignore Banjul. That is why it’s a very expensive project, it is costing us over 40 million US dollars but I think it worths it.”

Presidential adviser Dou Sanno has said President Adama Barrow has given to the people of Banjul where two presidents have failed.

President Barrow toured Banjul on Wednesday to check infrastructural work carried out in the city.

And according to Dou Sanno, the president gave to the people of Banjul what two presidents could not – apparently referring to Presidents Jawara and Jammeh.

And when asked what President Barrow gave the people of Banjul, Sanno said: “That is roads, to build the roads of Banjul and to take care of the sewage. If you look at Banjul now, you can sleep outside and you will not see any mosquito.

“All mosquitoes have gone because they do not have any hiding place. So what he did for the people of Banjul, only God [can pay him].”

The Gambia Pilot Program (GPP) has shifted the application deadline from Monday 16th November, 2020 to Friday 8th January, 2021 – amid the volume of interest communities continue to show in the grants scheme, the program has said.

The Gambia Pilot Program (GPP) is an initiative by the Government of The Gambia and the German Financial Cooperation, through KfW, and will serve as a model for the larger ‘Regional Stabilization and Development Fund’ of ECOWAS. Ten million euros (over 600 million dalasis) were committed for The Gambia to invest in the GPP grants scheme for agricultural infrastructure, for vocational training and skills development, for training and capacity building. GAMWORKS is entrusted with the management of the Program.

The program said in a statement: “The rationale behind the extension is to accommodate and allow more community-based organizations/groups to apply and win the grants scheme.

“Therefore, GPP entreat all interested communal groups in Greater Banjul Area, Lower River and Upper River Regions to expedite their application process for submission within the extended timeframe.

“GPP started in October 2019 with its activities designated to upgrade agricultural value chains and promote value addition in the target regions of the Lower River Region (LRR) and the Upper River Region (URR) as well as the Greater Banjul Area (GBA), with the overall aim to promote employment and income opportunities for youth, women and other vulnerable groups like returnees.

“The program is designed to upgrade agricultural production infrastructure and on technological solutions for increased productivity and high-quality further processing, aiming towards stable, year-round production cycles and permanent jobs. Apart from infrastructure, also training and capacity building will be provided.

“The candidates for grants will be both communal producers and private businesses in all stages of the value chains. However, private companies are asked to co-finance the investments with a percentage depending on the size of their operation.

“GPP is designed as an open program for which eligible communal and private candidates can apply upon a Call for Proposal issued by GAMWORKS. For participation, all candidates need to register with GAMWORKS, sending their organization name and contact details at: [email protected] to receive the application forms with information on procedures and funding criteria.

“Private sector applicants will receive details and deadlines at a later stage.

“All grant requests will be reviewed by an independent committee comprised of public and community stakeholders, assisted by experts of GAMWORKS supported by the company PEM CONSULT.”

President Adama Barrow’s delegation to the funeral of Lamin Ndambung Dibba took with them D50,000, it has been revealed.

Dibba died on 14 November after a brief illness in Germany.

The former agriculture minister was buried last Sunday at his native Salikeni, Baddibu attended by hundreds of people. Dibba was the senior administrative secretary of UDP and the UDP contingent turned out in their large numbers for the event led by leader Ousainou Darboe.

The Fatu Network understands the delegation dispatched by President Barrow to his funeral led by Dembo By-Force Bojang gave the family of Dibba D50,000.

Former Information Minister Sheriff Bojang has written about the day former President Yahya Jammeh asked him if he could hear his mother being cursed.

Jammeh suffered the shock of his life when the Adama Barrow-led opposition coalition demolished him at the December 2016 presidential election.

Sheriff Bojang who served as information minister between 2015 and 2016 in an opinion piece published in The Standard said he was with the former leader the day after he lost the election.

“I was with President Jammeh in his room the day after he lost the election. The presence had left him. Slumped across his desk, he forlornly told me, ‘Can you hear them cursing my mother?’ Even in the fortified executive office in the depths of the presidential office building, I could hear the frenzied crowds chanting the death of the dictatorship,” Mr Bojang who is also the proprietor of The Standard recalled.

He continued in his OpEd titled ‘Hubris’: I did not reply. I looked him straight in the eye. He was alive, breathing, but his spirit was broken, dead. My eyes misted. This was not the end I wished for him. I had become close to him. And like the dauphins to the French king, although I deeply love him and deeply hate him, I never wished him such an inglorious exit. But God decreed so.

“Indeed God decreed so, but in political calculus, what one does or fails to do basically determines one’s fate. If President Jammeh had listened and acted upon the advice of some of his aides, he would still have been resident at No 1 Marina Parade. Just like Donald Trump would have continued to live No 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for another four years if he had acted likewise. But hubris, they say, presages a fall.”

By Fatou Camara II

Justice Minsiter Dawda Jallow on Tuesday stated that the government remains committed to the transformation of the country’s security sector, after arguing the country is with a legacy of human rights abuses.

Mr Jallow stated this while launching the national security strategy and security sector reform strategy documents held at Bijilo.

The justice minister said: “As a country with a legacy of human rights abuses, the government is acutely aware of the need for transformation and development of the security sector with the fervent belief of the contribution that the sector could make in the process of state building, democratisation and peace building.

“I wish to take this opportunity to reiterate the government’s full and unwavering commitment to the implementation of the security sector reform.”

According to the justice minister, the security sector reform program of the government will see the government ensure ‘full’ civil oversight and democratic control of the security sector in line with international standards.

“Furthermore the objective is to build a security sector that has high respect for human rights and gender mainstreaming issues in all aspects including reengineering security institutions to ensure the integrity and legitimacy of the security system,” he said.

The TRRC’s top lawyer Essa Faal said on Wednesday the investigation will not dance to the tune of any individual or institution less than 24 hours since a Jammeh to Justice press conference in Ghana.

Ghanaian activists on Tuesday held a press conference where they suggested not much will on the part of the TRRC to bring Jammeh to Justice over the massacre of 44 Ghanaian migrants in The Gambia in 2005.

Essa Faal speaking to reporters on Wednesday reacted: “The TRRC takes the massacre of the 56 West Africans very very seriously. We take very seriously any single loss of life, let alone the senseless massacre of 56 West Africans. I think it is known to everyone that as a result of the TRRC investigations and public hearings those who carried out those massacres publicly confessed to having carried out the massacre and explained how all happened.

“We have not completed our investigation of the massacre of the West African migrants. We’ve done the first part which is to bring out the evidence of the junglers who carried out the killings and I think that put to rest the question as to whether those migrants died and where they were killed and by whom they were killed.

“The TRRC has been in contact with representatives of Jammeh to Justice who are very much interested in this, and the last few weeks we have outlined a plan as to what the TRRC intends to do. We have informed them, I have personally informed them that we would call about five witnesses from Ghana and we told them the type of witnesses we expect to call including Kyere himself.

“The TRRC will not dance to the tune of any individual or institution, we will not be directed to or be dictated by anyone as to what to do or how to do our work. We will do it to the best of our ability. We will do what we believe is right.”

The TRRC said on Wednesday its recommendation for extension of its work beyond two years has been appproved by President Adama Barrow.

The probe said in a statement: “The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission recently undertook a comprehensive review of the remaining themes in its work programme covering public hearings and investigations. These themes include the following: the killing of an estimated 56 West African migrants in 2005, the enforced disappearances of journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh and others, the creation of instruments of oppression and the debasement of the Gambian constitution, the April 14, 2016 protest leading to the arrest and torture of many persons and the alleged killing of Solo Sandeng, sexual and gender-based violence (part two), and Junglers (part two).

“The Commission, in compliance with the COVID-19 related health regulations issued by the Government, scaled down its activities. In view of the interruptions in its work programme, the Commission concluded that in order to complete its work in a timely manner, it needed more time beyond the two years provided for under the TRRC Act, 2017.

“Accordingly, the Commission, on 18 November 2020, recommended to the President of the Republic to extend the time granted to TRRC until 30 June 2021. The Attorney General and Minister of Justice informed the Commission that the President, pursuant to Section (3), (2) of the TRRC Act, 2017, has approved the said recommendation.

“The Commission will, therefore, conclude its public hearings during the first week of May 2021, and prepare during the rest of May and June the final report containing its findings and recommendations. That report will be submitted to the President in early July.

“In view of the urgency of finishing its work under the revised schedule, and in a departure from tradition, the Commission will not suspend its public hearings during the month of Ramadan (12 April-11 May 2021).”

Joe Biden on Tuesday lavished praise on his new nominee for the role of United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

US President-elect Joe Biden’s team has been taking shape and he on Tuesday officially went through the profile of some of the figures he’s nominating to work with him. They include Linda Thomas-Greenfield who once represented her country in The Gambia.

Biden said of Thomas-Greenfield: “A seasoned and distinguished diplomat with 35 years in the foreign service who never forgot where she came from. Growing up in segregated Lousiana, the eldest of eight, her dad couldn’t read or write but she says she was the smartest person she knew.

“First in the family to graduate from high school, then college, the whole world literally ahead of her as her dad and mom started to believe. Posted in Switzerland, Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria, Jamaica, Liberia where she was known as the people’s ambassador willing to meet anyone, an ambassador, a student, working people struggling to get by and always treating them with the same level of dignity and respect.”

The leader of the coalition of civil society organisations in the country has stated that it’s wrong for convicted coupists to be reinstated in the army, The Point has reported.

“Reinstating personnel of The Gambia Armed Forces (GAF) who were accused of Coup d’état in the system was totally wrong. What’s wrong is always wrong,” John Charles Njie said, according to The Point. Mr. Njie was speaking last Friday at NaNa conference hall along the Bertil Harding Highway during a day-long forum on the Role of CSOs and the Media towards the Security Sector Reforms (SSR), The Point said.

The army has reinstated some soldiers already convicted of treason; some of them include those that plotted to overthrow Yahya Jammeh’s government in March 2006. Some of the March 2006 coupists have appeared before the TRRC and have admitted to engaging in illegality.

The Fatu Network understands some of the convicted coupists have been paid money running into millions for the time they have not been in the army coupled with promotion and observer roles in UN missions.

President Adama Barrow will on Wednesday tour Banjul to monitor the progress of infrastructural projects carried out in the capital.

“The public is hereby informed that His Excellency, President Adama Barrow will tour the City of Banjul, tomorrow, Wednesday, 25th November 2020 10:00 A.M.

“The tour around the city will avail him the opportunity to monitor the progress of work under the Banjul Sewage, Drainage and Roads Project, which started in 2019.

“The tour will begin in Banjul South, through Banjul Central and ends at Banjul North,” State House in a statement said.

Former Interior Minister MA Bah has clarified he had no personal problems with Jammeh amid reports of reconciliation between the two men.

“It was all about internal issues within APRC [between] me and Fabakary Tombong Jatta. That had nothing to do with Jammeh.

“He just had to intervene to bring sanity into the party. That was all. That doesn’t mean I had any problem with Jammeh,” Mr Bah said.

Bah was a leading APRC figure but internal problems within the party led to him leaving the party.

Treatment is going well for 1004 people who are battling a mysterious skin disease in Senegal, the country’s new health minister has said.

Senegalese fishermen in Mbour and Dakar regions caused panic among Senegalese after they returned to shore with a mysterious skin disease.

The country’s health minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr provided details on the disease saying treatment is going well for 1004 people, according to Senego on Tuesday. Only one person has been hospitalised, the outlet reported, citing the health minister who was among ministers who faced journalists.

It has also emerged the disease is not contagious.

The Gambia has been listed among countries whose people may have to pay up to 15,000 dollars to be able to travel to the United States under a new visa rule issued by the Trump administration.

The U.S. State Department said the temporary final rule, which takes effect Dec. 24 and runs through June 24, targets countries whose nationals have higher rates of overstaying B-2 visas for tourists and B-1 visas for business travelers, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The Trump administration said the six-month pilot program aims to test the feasibility of collecting such bonds and will serve as a diplomatic deterrence to overstaying the visas, Reuters said.

Twenty-four countries have been affected by the new rule among them a staggering 15 African countries including The Gambia. Senegal is not part of it.

In the US Department of Homeland Security entry and exit overstay report for 2019 fiscal year, The Gambia had total overstay of 202.

Because of its size, The Gambia sent relatively few travelers to the United States compared with bigger nations, although with a high overstay rate.