A man abandoned a motorcycle he was riding and fled after he came close to patrolling anti-crime officers.

Police said Wednesday: “…during routine patrols, operatives of the Anti-Crime Unit encountered an individual riding a motorcycle, upon seeing the patrol officers at a distance, he abandoned the motorcycle and ran away. The motorcycle is suspected to be a stolen property and currently with the Police Anti-Crime Unit.”

Police also said its anti-crime arrested two individuals suspected of shop breaking and stealing.

“This came following a report filed by a complainant that his shop was broken into and flat screen televisions stolen. The ACU launched a swift investigation into the matter leading to the arrest of Ebrima Jammeh and Alagie Jallow both of Farato Village.

“Seven flat screen televisions belonging to the complainant were recovered and 4 other individuals were also arrested for receiving stolen property,” police said.

Police announced on Wednesday they will begin an operation from mid-December against domestic animals found loose at public places.

Police said in a statement: “The Office of the Inspector General of Police has observed with great concern, that owners of domestic animals such as sheep, goats, donkeys, and cattle; let loose their livestock especially at public places and highways.

“The general public particularly cattle owners are hereby notified that, a grace period is given from now against 15th December 2020, for all cattle owners to restrain and control their animals.

“Furthermore, the public is hereby informed that the Inspector General’s Office in collaboration with the Cattle Farmer’s Association will on the 15th December 2020, commence an operation to ensure that there are no stray animals within Greater Banjul Area particularly at public places.

“During this operation, stray animals found roaming around public places will be captured and restrained at an identified location. Consequently, in order for owners to regain their animals, penalties will be awarded in accordance with the law.”

Army major Yahya Darboe on Wednesday told the TRRC he made up his mind his time on earth had come to an end shortly after the door of a Mile 2 cell was locked behind him.

Yahya Darboe in 2006 was arrested and jailed after he took part in a coup plot against then-President Yahya Jammeh’s rule.

And speaking to the TRRC, Darboe who is now a major but a captain at the time of the March 2006 coup plot stated: “Definitely, I have made [up] my mind that my time has finished, [finally] I am going to die. So how the family is going to fend without me was what I was thinking about.”

Darboe had first told the TRRC how leader of the coup former head of the army Ndure Cham met him at the Brusubi Turntable and told him he was relying on him for the coup.

On the night of the coup on March 21, Darboe was arrested in his house in Brusubi after he told his co-coupist Wassa Camara that the coup had failed because their leaders were not picking up calls.

By Matty Senghore

Members of staff of the judiciary on Wednesday vowed to keep striking until their demands over their welfare are met.

Staff of the judiciary who do not include judges and magistrates said their demands for better working conditions, risk allowances, trainings and increment in salary have all fallen on deaf ears.

On Wednesday, the staff commenced a sit-down strike which saw the employees go to work but refuse to carry out any task.

More follows…

PURA on Wednesday said programs on some radio stations are degenerating into platforms for abuse through the constant use of insults and unsavory language antithetical to the cultural norms and values of Gambian society.

“In addition, it has come to the attention of the Authority that some stations are playing uncensored music with graphic language during peak daytime hours especially. Broadcasters are hereby requested to actively moderate call-ins and live programs,” PURA said in a statement posted to its official Facebook page.

PURA then warned: “Section 238(1)(k) of the IC Act 2009 requires licensees to store sound and video recordings of all programmes for a period of 3 months. The Authority shall conduct monitoring visits in this regard to all licensees to ensure adherence to these provisions.

“As a final note of caution, All radio station owners are hereby warned to devise programming as per the tenets of the IC Act, Individual Radio Station Licenses and the Broadcasting Code of Conduct. Failure to do so shall result in enforcement action against default licensees as per the provisions of the PURA Act, IC Act and relevant broadcasting regulations.”

“Whilst the Authority remains resolved to actively monitor the content of all broadcasting stations, the general public is also urged to report any instances of the use of abusive and foul language on any broadcast platform by calling the Authority’s toll-free line 148 (free of charge).”

GDC leader Mamma Kandeh has said GDC is gaining momentum ‘every day’ contrary to claims the party is headed towards extinction.

GDC suffered shock defeats in the recently held by-elections sparking claims the party is dying.

But its leader Mamma Kandeh said: “You have come to witness this meeting here today. These people are all coming from other political parties. So the GDC is never dying. GDC is gaining momentum every day.”

Speaking on the by-election defeats, Kandeh said: “I am a bit disappointed but again as I said this is democracy, it [losing] can happen anytime. Niamina and Kerr Jarga do not belong to me. Nobody is there who can say it’s mine.

“They were voting for other political parties before the GDC. So if today they decided to vote for other political party other than the GDC I think I have nothing to say other than still to thank them for what they have done for the GDC.”

Papa Faal said ‘I cannot change people’s minds’ as he reacted to those calling him a terrorist with regard to his role in the December 30, 2014 attack on State House.

A group of Gambians mostly dissidents including Papa Faal launched an early morning attack on State House five years ago as part of a plot to overthrow then President Yahya Jammeh. The attack was repelled in which Faal escaped.

Last Saturday, Faal announced he will run for president at next year’s presidential elections. However some Gambians continue to call him a terrorist.

He told The Fatu Network: “I cannot change people’s minds and I cannot dictate what they have to say. To them I am a terrorist but to some we did good.

“So I just have to tread that and accept that there will be divergence of opinion about what happened. Everybody has been talking about Rwanda but the Rwandan president was what?”

GMC leader Mai Ahmad Fatty has fumed that the 2021 budget makes no sense and so should be rejected by MPs.

He wrote on his official Facebook page on Wednesday morning: ” The 2021 budget estimates is nothing but daylight robbery; an attack against our economy. 8 billion Dalasis deficit constitutes 16% of the total debt of the entire 22 years of Yaya Jammeh’s rule, in just one year by this government. An absolute rubbish! Of these, 3 billion is expected to be domestic debts and the rest foreign. Vital sectors such as agriculture (400 million Dalasi) etc compared to over 2 billion Dalasi for their pet projects, shows this budget is custom-made for 2021 elections, and not on national priorities. It is built on perpetuating personal political ambition, and any development variable achieved is merely incidental to that ambition.

“Over 1 billion Dalasis for centralised services, together with potentially illicit proceeds from billions of new and on-going infrastructure contracts, will ensure limitless 2021 election campaign funds. What will the Ministry of Finance alone do with nearly 2 billion Dalasis budget it allocated itself? They will also control a separate over 1 billion Dalasi centralised services budget. No one gets to supervise how that money would be spent.

“Clearly, this government has gone outside of the funding models of the NDP for obvious reasons, and those reasons may appear highly dubious.

“Once passed by Parliament, the regime will have the potential opportunity to spend a hundred million Dalasis in each region in 2021 for elections purposes. This is perhaps the most self-serving, most heartless, most reckless and irresponsible budgets in Gambian history. I am not an economist but even at a lay perspective, this budget makes no sense. It should be rejected outright.”

The brother of the chief executive officer of Star FM/TV Alpha Karaga died on Tuesday, the family has confirmed.

Bahoreh Karaga died in Spain aged just 45.

The older Karaga is the biological brother of the CEO of leading news media organisation Star FM/TV Alpha Karaga.

The government on Tuesday said political leaders are yet to be notified of a plan to take the draft constitution back to the National Assembly, pushing back at suggestions it did.

Spokesmen of UDP, GDC and APRC told The Standard government hasn’t informed them of any plan to re-launch the draft constitution following its throwing out by MPs back in September.

In a statement signed by spokesperson Ebrima G Sankareh, government said while it is in the process of initiating dialogue with leaders of political parties in the country, political leaders are yet to be notified.

During his speech before the 67th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, the Hon Justice Minister Dawda Jallow announced that: ‘a process of dialogue with the leadership of all political parties has been initiated with a view to building consensus on all the contentious issues and re-submitting the 2020 draft constitution to the National Assembly’,” the statement said.

It added: “The message was meant to communicate that ‘a process’ of dialogue with the leadership of political parties was about to begin and not to mean that the party leaders were already contacted.”

Alpha Robinson has landed a managing director role at the Dakar-based ACT Afrique consulting agency.

Robinson will head the management consulting department across all sectors in addition to leading the practice in water, sanitation and energy, the agency said on Tuesday.

“Alpha ROBINSON is an engineer by profession. He has a successful international career spanning over 25 years,” the agency in a statement on its official Facebook page said.

Robinson was tapped alongside Albert KONAN N’DA who the agency says “brings over 15 years of corporate advisory and management consulting experience in the aviation and airline industry with specialized experience in business planning and analysis, modeling, corporate advisory, financial & operational restructuring and investment”. N’da will head the airline and aviation sectors of the agency.

Robinson’s new job comes nearly five months since he was removed as managing director of National Water and Electricity Company.

Atleast 80 people died after the boat conveying them to the Canary Islands exploded near Cape Verde, Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday.

The Cape Verdean coasguard heard about the boat exploding from fishermen who were nearby early Tuesday morning, according to Al Jazeera.

Around 150 people are believed to have been occupying the boat, mainly from Senegal and The Gambia, Al Jazeera said.

It comes days after a ‘back way’ boat that reportedly left The Gambia carrying 100 people arrived in Spain.

The spokesman of the Gambia Immigration Department told The Standard his department is not aware of ‘these trips’.

By AP

Spanish rescue services have located 1,300 migrants in four days in the Atlantic Ocean and transferred them to the southern Canary Islands, further straining local emergency response capabilities as makeshift military camps for the newcomers were being readied.

The latest to arrive were 27 men from northern Africa who were picked up from the high seas early Monday, Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service told The Associated Press, adding to the 1,275 people found from Friday to Sunday aboard 42 boats.

More than half of the 16,000 migrants who arrived this year in the Spanish islands off northwest Africa did so in the last four weeks, a sharp influx worrying international and non-profit organizations.

That’s compared to around 1,500 arrivals recorded last year in the archipelago, better known for its vacation resorts popular among northern Europeans.

Officials from the U.N. refugee and migration agencies were visiting the islands this week to assess the crisis, which the IOM and UNCHR agencies said has been fueled by people fleeing violence in the Sahel region or the Ivory Coast, extreme poverty, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.

Army Major Wassa Camara told the TRRC on Tuesday former prominent jungler Malick Jatta pointed his pistol at his head and told him he was going to treat him like an enemy for turning against them.

Camara was part of a group of soldiers who in March 2006 attempted to overthrow then President Yahya Jammeh’s government.

Explaining his encounter with former no-nonsense jungler Malick Jatta, Camara said: “A could remember a night when I was taken to NIA. When we reached at NIA, I found many people there. Soldiers were all over the place and I also found some ladies roosting meat. These (meat) were given to the panelists and the security guards there.

“So by 12midnight the ladies were asked to stop roasting and pack up their things to leave. I could remember that night, Malick Jatta, at the reception, came and stood before me. He was with the Black Black, Junglers.

“He stood before me and said, ‘Captain Camara, do you remember that you were the people who were training us at Farafenni on military tactics?’ ‘That we should protect and defend the sovereignty of The Gambia?’ And he continued to say that, ‘now that you’re against us, I’m going to treat you an enemy’. That’s what he said. While he was talking, he pointed his pistol at the direction of my head.

“So I looked at him, in the face, I said, ‘many people were called in here before me and tonight I am here, it is destiny and here today I am who what what will happen tomorrow’. So from there, he left my position. Just few steps from me was where WO1 Alpha Bah was seated. He went and asked him the same. That ‘why are you people against us?’ Then Alpha Bah told him that it is destiny. So that was it.

“He looked serious, you can see that frustration and anger in him. He stood there for a while and left. And then came back again but with another soldier called Chairman. They were there looking at us and stood in front of us. This Chairman I later came to know him to be [Amadou] Badjie. When the ladies packed and left, this Malick Jatta and Amadou Badjie came to where I was seated.

“My hands were cuffed at the back, so they lifted me from my chair and took me just at the side of the building where the wall is at and continuously hit my head against the wall. From there, they move me to where they used to beat people. I was taken to that place. It’s at the back of the NIA building. My legs were cleared and I fell on the ground. Sticks started raining on me. They were beating me mercilessly.”

Former head of the army’s coup involved disabling the airport and arresting those deemed essential, it has been revealed.

A group of Gambian army officers led by Colonel Ndure Cham attempted to overthrow former President Yahya Jammeh in March 2006 who was on a trip to Mauritania. The coup misfired and most of the perpetrators arrested.

The head of the military police at the time Wassa Camara explaining how the coup was planned told the TRRC: “That 1 Infantry Battalion were Captain Darboe is at… Darboe will be responsible for the airport. He will ensure that he bars all the flights from landing and taking off from The Gambia. He has to ensure that within 1 Infantry Battalion operation responsibility area, are secured and there shouldn’t be any intrusion in that area.

“That Guards Battalion should ensure stability and calmness within their area of responsibility. [That] like 1 Bn, they shouldn’t allow any intrusion in their aread of responsibility. That State Guard should be responsible for the seat of the government and that once the operation is accomplished without any orders coming from the operations commander, they should allow anybody to come into that place.

“The military police, [that is] I, should be responsible for the military police personnel to ensure that once the operation is accomplished that the needfuls are arrested, those that they deemed important people within our area of jurisdiction, who are essential for the operation should be arrested. He has mentioned Edward Singhatey to me. That he should be arrested.

“The specific task that was given to me was to go to the arts station at Abuko, that I should meet with one Mr Njie, he should give me the fuses to the communication lines and that should also bar all communications to and fro the country, both local and international.”

Army major Wassa Camara began his TRRC testimony on Tuesday by telling the investigation former head of the army Ndure Cham informed him that the time was right to ‘effect changes’.

A group of Gambian army officers led by Colonel Ndure Cham attempted to overthrow former President Yahya Jammeh in March 2006. One of them was then-Captain Wassa Camara who was head of the military police.

He told the TRRC on Tuesday: “When we (Ndure Cham and himself) met, he said looking at the dynamics of the country then, he said he believed that it was the right moment to effect changes.

“He said there was rampant corruption and that the rule of law was not respected, principles and policies of the governance system was abused and there was more inclination towards tribal lines.

“So among other things that he has said, he said to me that was the right moment for him to effect change within the country and that he had support from the armed forces.”

The coup misfired and resulted in the rounding UP of Wassa Camara and other officers. Ndure Cham managed to flee to Senegal but was shortly after lured into the country and killed.

The army said today it will conduct a field training exercise for troops begininning November 18 through November 20.

The field exercise will take place in the general areas of Yundum, Banjulinding, Sinchu Alagie, Old Yundum and Yarambamba starting 6am daily.

“The training will involve movement of troops and the use of blank ammunition most especially around the general area,” the army said in a statement.

It added: “The inhabitants of the above mentioned villages are therefore urged to go on with their normal daily activities and should not panic as this is a routine exercise.”

The Secretary General and Leader of the GFA, Hon. B. B. Dabo, and the entire membership of the GFA wish to extend their heartfelt condolence to the family, relatives and friends of Hon. Lamin N. Dibba, whose untimely demise took last Saturday. Similarly, we extend our sympathy to the Hon Ousainou Darboe and the entire membership of the United Democratic Party for this great loss.

Hon. Dibba’s service to this country has been exemplary both as a civil servant and as political leader and his demise is a great loss to the country and its people for whom he was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. At a more personal level, Mr. Dibba has enjoyed strong personal relations with many of GFA’s leadership and he will be greatly missed as a friend and a brother.

We pray that Allah, SWT, grant him Jannatul Firdawsi. Ameen!

____________________________________

National Executive Secretariat

Gambia For All