The former secretary to the defunct Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council has said that the 1994 coup was a fluke and that it could have been foiled if there was serious resistance from Gambian security personnel.
Abubacarr Sulayman Jeng said this on Tuesday while appearing as the fifth person to testify before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission.
“If there was a serious resistance there wouldn’t be any July 22nd coup,” the leadership didn’t do up to expectation. There was a failure and I didn’t think credible resistance at the bridge,” the former police officer told the commission at the Dunes hotel in Kotu.
He added: “If I was on the bridge I wouldn’t have surrendered like that. Probably my…it wouldn’t have been the good record.”
He however told the commission that rebelling against the Junta when the coup succeeded would be suicidal.
Mr. Jeng, 56, however concurred that corruption was at the police before the coup but said that there was a credible leadership to provide security for the country, describing the Junta men as angry people who wanted to vent their anger in people.
He said: “Before the 1993 to 1994 I cannot vow that there was no corruption in the police but it can be measured. I wouldn’t rule out corruption that there was no corruption in the police but there was a dynamic leadership to provide security to the country.”
He said during his days at the Police Force before the coup that there were so many lapses like lack of adequate training, financial support to the Police, adding that many were having the thought that the Police Institution was an Institution for school dropout.
