Friday, December 6, 2024

December 30, 2014 Incident: Innocent Gambians Still Being Hunted For Alleged Involvement

- Advertisement -

It seems the December 30, 2014 incident which show gallant Gambians in the diaspora taking their fight to Dictator Yahya Jammeh’s backyard is still not going away. Innocent Gambians are still being hunted in what a credible source described to the Fatu Network as a deliberate attempt to especially purge the security forces of those the government does not trust.

And as it happened, Mr Ebrima Bajinka, was a member of the Gambia Police Force (GPF) attached to the training school. Being a trainer, he was also teaching at a specialist school for children with learning difficulties.

- Advertisement -

It was in this school that he met a German couple who donated a container full of materials for the children. Among the materials was a radio communication equipment (Walkie Talkies or Two Way Radios). Mr Bajinka knowing that the radio communications equipment was not going to be of any use to the school, decided to approach the Gambia National Army (GNA) to see whether they could buy it for their security use.

But as it turned out, the offer to sell the radio communication equipment to the GNA was Mr Bajinka greatest error. Shortly after the December 30th 2014 incident, Dictator Yahya Jammeh’s security militia (junglers) started looking for clues and anything that came their way it seems was good enough evidence to pounce on.

One of the soldiers that Mr Bajinka approached and gave the radio communication equipment to was alleged to have been involved in the December 30 2014 incident and since he was nowhere to be found, the “junglers” found in Mr Bajinka a convenient prey for arrest and possible torture or even unexplained disappearance. The “junglers” alleged that the wanted soldier that Mr Bajinka approached for the GNA to buy the radio communication equipment had indeed wanted to use it for the December 30, 2014 incident even though the GNA had earlier said the could not use Mr Bajinka’s radio communication equipment because its range was too short for their standard.

Mr Bajinka was invited for questioning and released. But shortly, soldiers started looking for him again. They came to his family compound in a truck full of well-armed soldiers. His terrified family told the soldiers that Mr Bajinka was out in town but that did not stop them from searching for him room to room in his family compound.

- Advertisement -

Some of his relatives were arrested but released shortly. Mr Bajinka eventually fled the Gambia into a neighbouring country but sadly his terrified mother who was gravely ill at the time the armed soldiers descended on his family compound, immediately suffered stroke which she died from.

Although Dictator Jammeh had said on the national TV that none of his security personnel were involved in the December 30 2014 incident, two weeks after the historic incident, a whole lot of soldiers and other members of the security forces were arrested, tortured and eventually court martial led. All those who went through the court martial were found guilty. The government is also still hunting alleged accomplice of the incident. Security officers who have long been eyed as trouble makers are now being purged and consequently bearing the brunt. Mr Bajinka happens to be one of those eyed for all the wrong reasons.

Popular Posts