Contrary to what The Gambia Government claimed by way of a rebuttal released by Information Minister, Sheriff Bojang that Sheriff Dibba, the detained head of the Gambia National Transport Control Association who was alleged to have died at the Banjul Police Headquarter, where he was being held with other members of the GNTC, died at the hospital instead, and that “while in detention, they were never beaten or tortured,” Fatu Network can report without any equivocation that the GNTCA leader, Sheriff Dibba in fact collapsed and died in detention at the Police Headquarter, and not at the hospital as claimed.
In his harsh response during an interview with AFP in which he among other things accused the media of “filling their newspaper columns and airtime with gross distortions and the most outrageous lies against the country”, Bojang proceeded to list a laundry list of ailments he claims Dibba was suffering from in an apparent attempt to shift the blame away from the government’s alleged tortures meted out on Dibba. Mr Bojang claimed that Dibba was “diagnosed with uncomplicated malaria and hypertension but discharged after falling ill in custody on February 20. His illness took a turn for the worse and he died the next day. A post-mortem carried out on February 23 found that Dibba had heart disease, diabetes, lung and liver problems.”
After this scathing attack by the Information Minister against the media and his strong denial of accusations leveled by the London-based International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) that “Dibba died as a result of abuse and torture at the hands of NIA agents,” Fatu Network followed up with a comprehensive investigation to find out how Dibba actually died, and it was during this digging that our unimpeachable sources in the Police HQ informed us that Dibba in fact died in custody (in his cell), after which he was rushed to the hospital so as to fabricate the cause and place of his demise – essentially confirming ITF’s claims.
