Breaking News:About 40 NIA Agents Fired-Sacked Officers React!
Breaking News:About 40 NIA Agents Fired-Sacked Officers React!
About 40 officers of  Gambia's feared National Intelligence Agency are without job at this hour, as President Yahya Jammeh fired officers suspected of being disloyal to his administration. Some of the fired officers who spoke to this paper claimed that the Agency was being "Jollanised" these days and their sacking was politically motivated. According to the aggrieved officers, the President was favouring his own tribe men and women at the Agency by appointing them into key positions in that discredited intelligence office. Some of those sacked came mainly from the Central River, Western and Upper River Divisions of the Gambia. The protesting officers who wished to remain anonymous hinted that the President fired agents suspected of  having family relationship with the murdered intelligence chief Daba Marena and other agency officials currently standing trial on coup related charges. They claimed that they were victims of  state sponsored mass cleansing of NIA staffers from a majority tribe. A good number of the intelligence officers sacked served numerous years prior to their unceremonious dismissal.

One of the sacked officers told this paper that the President was misled by some new faces at the agency, who are at this hour teaming up with certain police and GAF officials to frame officers believed to be stumbling block to their secret operations. According to the aggrieved sacked officer, President Jammeh would in the too distance future distinguish the chaff and the wind, as they (the sacked officers) were just sacked for no grounds."

The NIA has over the years been linked to torture and abduction of political opponents in that impoverished West African country. Most of its officials operate outside the confines of the Gambian law. They arrest people without cause and in some instances persecute members of the  local populace suspected of supporting the opposition.

Meanwhile, a new batch of undercover agents have been recruited to monitor the activities of agency officials and local staffers. According to the sacked NIA officer, the said undercover officers "are more powerful" than  their DG Pa Jallow. "These officers can meet the President at any given time and whatever report they pass to the President is unquestionable. They hardly report to the agency. They had their own office in Kanilai and at the State House."said the one of the sacked officers.

As the President have taken such a major security changes at the NIA, many believe that the Agency would soon be transformed as a major torture chamber, just like the one operated by the disgraced Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. It's gathered that one of the Agency's torture chambers "Bambadingka." has been further equipped with modern electric machines in a bid to force detainees to confess to crimes they have been accused with. To those of you who do not know Bambadingka, it's a nasty cell at the NIA where inmates are usually stripped naked and subjected to systematic torture. In some instances, detainees are usually electrocuted on their genitals and exposed to high voltage bulbs while in custody. Many inmates were rendered paralyzed due to the torture they have been exposed to by these blood thirsty NIA officers.

It would take time before the sacked officers will be accepted by the Gambian public. The average Gambian believes that most of the agency staffers took part in such barbaric acts and hardly trust to get closer to them. Our reporter who managed to elicit reaction from some of the sacked officers said the officers told him that the President was bound to regret his move as "they would be vindicated soon." One of the officers claimed that the real devils are at the NIA at this hour and whoever is associated with what he calls"this conspiracy" to get rid of us" would pay for the price sooner or later. The officer promises to prepare a special report in days to come about happenings at the NIA, which he intends to expose to the Gambian people.

Some NIA insiders who survived the recent changes said anxiety and worry continues to grip top officials of the Agency. According to these insiders, the Agency has now been reduced to an APRC bureau."The people assigned with the nation's intelligence can hardly write a simple report, not to talk of processing information. We are in big trouble. What they termed as threat to national security in most instances turn out to be trivial political issues. This country is far from being saved. What we have today is illiterates running the NIA. But the President will learn as time goes on."said one of the sacked officials.

Some of the sacked officials told me that they are currently being monitored by the agency's new hired undercover operatives and feared that some of their fired colleagues risked being kidnapped. Prior to their sacking the officers said they received an intelligence report regarding a possible restructuring exercise  at the Agency. The move they said never came as a surprise to them. The  President they said, had been thinking about ways and means of discarding agents suspected of being loyal to the late Marena, Ndure Cham and others.



Posted on Monday, December 11, 2006 (Archive on Wednesday, December 27, 2006)
Posted by PNMBAI  Contributed by PNMBAI
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