Today, for the first time in 10 years the family of the late Daba Marenah is observing a vigil for their husband, father and grandfather following his murder by Yaya Jammeh in 2006. Family members, neighbors and friends of Marenah Kunda are reciting the Holy Quran in a solemn charity in London Corner for the departed soul who was murdered along with four other security officers following the 21 March 2006 alleged coup. The other four victims were Lt. Ebou Lowe, 2nd Lt. Alieu Ceesay, WO2 Alpha Bah and Staff Sergeant Manlafi Corr.
The regime of Yaya Jammeh falsely claimed that these five security officers escaped while being transported to Janjanbureh prisons from Mile 2. The government said the vehicle in which they were transported summersaulted leading to the escape. Yet the government never said whether anyone was injured or killed when the heavily armed vehicle collapsed. No pictures of the vehicle were shown and the government never announced the names of those who were guarding them. How could a man shackled on both hands and legs survive a high-speeding summersaulting vehicle?
Since this incident, none of these five officers ever contacted their families, and the government never launched any search for them. Consequently the families of the victims could never acknowledge that indeed their loved ones were dead for fear of their own lives during the dictatorship. Since Yaya Jammeh left the shores of the Gambia on January 21, still Daba Marenah never contacted his family. This therefore clearly indicates that Yahya Jammeh murdered the man and his fellow officers in a typical dictator style.
Today Daba’s wives and children and other relatives have the courage to formally acknowledge the death of their loved one. Can anything be more painful than this; to have your father murdered in your own country by your own government yet you are afraid to accept that fact? How can a human being be so callous that you can kill a husband and a father yet deny the wife and children of that father and husband to pay their respects to their loved one? This is what Yahya Jammeh and APRC meant to Gambians.
Yet in this Gambia, you still have fellow Gambians who support and pay allegiance to Yaya Jammeh and the APRC. How could any human being with conscience support such a person and party? How would one feel if Daba Marenah, Ebou Lowe, Alieu Ceesay, Alpha Bah and Manlafi Corr were your father, husband or brother? Can you still support the man and the organization that killed them? Yet Fabakary Tombong Jatta, Suku Singhateh, Abdoulie Bojang and Abdoulie Saine continue to associate themselves with such murderous political organization? How can any Gambian support APRC and Yaya Jammeh?
Just as the APRC killed Daba Marenah and Co so also did the AFPRC killed Koro Ceesay by burning him in his own car and claiming it was an accident. It was in the same way Deyda Hydara was shot dead at close range in the middle of town. This was the way Idi Amin or Saddam Hussein or Mobutu used to eliminate their citizens. It is the same way that Yaya Jammeh and AFPRC and APRC eliminated Gambians. Yet there are still Gambians who continue to stand with Yaya Jammeh and APRC.
When will the Government of Adama Barrow establish a Truth and Justice Commission to unearth the truth about these atrocities? Mothers are crying. Fathers are crying. Sons and daughters are crying. People have been crying for years because their loved ones have been brutally tortured, raped and killed by the AFPRC/APRC under Yaya Jammeh. These torturers. rapists and killers are roaming the streets of Banjul and Serre Kunda. When shall justice flow like a mighty river?
I wonder which Gambian citizen would vote for an APRC candidate in this coming National Assembly election. In fact which Gambian citizen would lack conscience so much as to stand for APRC. Voting or standing for APRC soaks your hands with blood. Voting or standing for APRC means you are an accomplice in the murder of Daba Marenah, Koro Ceesay, Deyda Hydara, Solo Sandeng and the numerous murdered victims. Voting or standing for APRC means your are mocking those Gambian women who were beaten and raped. Voting or standing for APRC means you are telling the mothers and fathers of the Massacred Children of April 10 and 11 that you do not care about their children. How could a fellow Gambian do that? Time will tell.
May the gentle souls rest in perfect peace. Amen.
God Bless The Gambia.
