By Momodou Justice Darboe
Ali Cham aka Killa Ace has told The Fatu Network that his rights were violated when an order was allegedly issued by the police for his detention incommunicado.
The rapper-activist said though he was not physically abused by the police during his over 48-hour detention, he felt emotionally tortured by been allegedly locked up in a mosquito-infested, tiny cell with a number of other detainees.
He adds that his father was also denied him access as Anti-Crime Unit of the police allegedly ordered for his incommunicado detention at the Kairaba police station, explaining that the same order was also given when he was escorted to the police in Banjul under armed escort.
Killa Ace was among the dozen youth, who were rounded up by the police, on suspicion of partaking in protests over alleged police brutality following the reported torture to death of a 33-year-old Sierra Leonean market vendor, allegedly by members of the Anti-Crime Unit of the Gambia Police Force.
While Killa Ace is yet to be charged with any offense, some of the youths with whom he was arrested, have since been charged with various offences, among them, willful damage to property.
Meanwhile Ace has insisted that there is no love lost between him and the police, elucidating that he only harbours disdain and disgust for those police he called bad cops.
“I just want to ask the police about what beef I have with them. I have no beef with the police. My only beef with the police is the bad police,” Ace told The Fatu Network.
According to him, his denunciation of the police began when he was sometime ago arrested by the Anti-Crime Unit.
“I was locked up with other youths. Instead of been shown compassion and love, they were beaten, worked, abused and had no access to their families.
“As a victim of police brutality and the fact that we fought hard against all these ills, I don’t want the repeat of the past,” he said.
Ace is of the conviction that his friction with the police is part of a broader plan by the powers that be to silence dissenting voices.
“They want me to be quiet. They don’t want me to talk about the violations of the rights of Gambians. It is a political problem in which they want to silence voices of defiance. The government want to silence dissenting voices,” he argued.
