Army Major Wassa Camara told the TRRC on Tuesday former prominent jungler Malick Jatta pointed his pistol at his head and told him he was going to treat him like an enemy for turning against them.
Camara was part of a group of soldiers who in March 2006 attempted to overthrow then President Yahya Jammeh’s government.
Explaining his encounter with former no-nonsense jungler Malick Jatta, Camara said: “A could remember a night when I was taken to NIA. When we reached at NIA, I found many people there. Soldiers were all over the place and I also found some ladies roosting meat. These (meat) were given to the panelists and the security guards there.
“So by 12midnight the ladies were asked to stop roasting and pack up their things to leave. I could remember that night, Malick Jatta, at the reception, came and stood before me. He was with the Black Black, Junglers.
“He stood before me and said, ‘Captain Camara, do you remember that you were the people who were training us at Farafenni on military tactics?’ ‘That we should protect and defend the sovereignty of The Gambia?’ And he continued to say that, ‘now that you’re against us, I’m going to treat you an enemy’. That’s what he said. While he was talking, he pointed his pistol at the direction of my head.
“So I looked at him, in the face, I said, ‘many people were called in here before me and tonight I am here, it is destiny and here today I am who what what will happen tomorrow’. So from there, he left my position. Just few steps from me was where WO1 Alpha Bah was seated. He went and asked him the same. That ‘why are you people against us?’ Then Alpha Bah told him that it is destiny. So that was it.
“He looked serious, you can see that frustration and anger in him. He stood there for a while and left. And then came back again but with another soldier called Chairman. They were there looking at us and stood in front of us. This Chairman I later came to know him to be [Amadou] Badjie. When the ladies packed and left, this Malick Jatta and Amadou Badjie came to where I was seated.
“My hands were cuffed at the back, so they lifted me from my chair and took me just at the side of the building where the wall is at and continuously hit my head against the wall. From there, they move me to where they used to beat people. I was taken to that place. It’s at the back of the NIA building. My legs were cleared and I fell on the ground. Sticks started raining on me. They were beating me mercilessly.”
