By Lamin Njie
Former information minister Dr Amadou Scattred Janneh has told the TRRC he took into consideration the possibility of being the ‘sacrificial lamb’ over his change campaign eight years ago.
Dr Janneh was jailed for life in 2012 after he was found guilty of treason for distributing t-shirts with messages of regime change.
“That was a possibility that I took into consideration,” Dr Janneh told the TRRC when asked if he had put his mind to being the ‘sacrificial lamb’ for change to take place in Gambia.
“I may have started the activity too soon but I don’t think it went wrong,” he told the probe when asked what went wrong in respect of his campaign.
Dr Janneh then recollected of his arrest: “On June 6, a group of plain cloth officers came to my office at Kotu and told me I was in trouble for distributing t-shirt and arrested me.
“I was told that the president was very upset by the message on the t-shirt and that was a serious crime.”
Luck smiled on Dr Janneh in September 2012 when then-President Yahya Jammeh forgave him following an appeal on his behalf by visiting prominent US activist Reverend Jesse Jackson.
He then renewed his bad blood with President Jammeh as soon as he arrived in United States where he was deported.
