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New Revelations on the Murder of Daba and others:Daba Marena & Co: the guards are talking
This story has exhaustively been covered but there is still this piece that
Town Crier wants Gambians to know. Two weeks ago I was on weekends at
Janjanbureh. At night fall, we went out to a friend's house to while away
our time. It was here that I encountered a prison guard. We discussed the
pros and cons of the government we all serve and during those
exchanges, the guard blurted out that Daba and Co were definitely killed. I
asked him why he said so. And he had this to say.

"Sometime before the killers had hatched out their plan, a call was placed
to my head warden, the late Inspector David Gibba that some high profile
prisoners will be brought to Janjanbureh from mile II. As a result he
ordered us to clear a section for these high profile prisoners as he did not
want them to mingle with the common prisoners. We cleared the rooms which
were supposed to house them. On the day of the proposed transfer I was on
duty. We waited and waited and no one showed up or contacted us to tell us
why. We never received word as to what was causing the delay from either
Banjul or our head at the prisons. At the end of my shift, I went to talk to
Inspector Gibba who told me that he has not either received any word as to
why the delay. Later on in the day to our surprise, we heard the press
release alleging their escape overnight. Inspector Gibba cautioned us to
continue doing our job and refrain from discussing the issue as we don't
know anything about it since they did not hand them over to us."

Fellow Gambians do we now see how sinister a government we have operates? It
even fools its own workers into believing lies. Gambia is such a small
nation where we can't hide anything. Every deed will have a perpetrator and
a witness if the two are not the same. Man can run but he can't hide. Why
was the man in charge not even informed right away about the alleged escape
en route to Janjanbueh but kept in the dark? This was done in order not to
entertain questions.

*CIVIL SERVANTS: CRY BLOOD*

*Ever wonder why the civil servants are silent? A wise man once said "better
be poor and be in God's favor than be rich and be hated by God" This is the
same scenario here in The Gambia my brother. We would rather suffer in
silence and die in peace and be buried in peace and be seen to be patriots
than be eye marked by Jammeh. This will lead to harsher and more drastic
consequences. That is why most of us do not complain openly but rather do it
in the confines of our rooms among trusted friends.

Cost of living is sky rocketing here and one wonders how we are surviving.
Let's take the example of the unqualified teacher. He gets paid a monthly
salary about D583 while the cost of a bag of rice is above his earning.
Let's say this unqualified teacher has a wife and three kids. How on earth
do we think he can take care of his family with such a meager? Rather than
be preoccupied with his duty of teaching, he will be in a state of
confusion. His daily preoccupation is how to make sure there is food on the
table. Majority of the civil servants are living in a state of hand to mouth
while Jammeh floats on money. Where is our Gambia heading to? Vision 2020?
One wonders.

*POLICING THE UNPOLICEABLE*

Let Oga not be fooled. Blocking the Freedom newspaper is not a solution to
the problems of the Gambia . Anyone who does not accept criticism is
childish. Just as he is reading it daily, we too are doing so here in the
camp. You can block access to the website but can you block our e-mail
accounts. We have our own contacts outside and all they do is copy the
stories and send it to us as e-mails. Most workers print these and keep them
in their bags to read them in the confines of their rooms as reading these
in the open is a self death sentence. Let us not waste human energy on a
paper.Oga is also devoting too much attention to the Freedom Newspaper thus
making it very popular with the masses here most especially the youths and civil servants.

More cartridges and paper are being used to print these e-mails so that people can read them
and discard them for their own safety. Trying to prevent us from reading the
paper is like Jammeh standing at the mouth of river Gambia and trying to
prevent fish from entering the river. Foolish isn't it? Oga come out from
the water and let your clothes dry. You can't stop the fish. Like one of my
Guinean Ecomog soldier friend used to say "when two people fight, one win,
one surrenders" referring to Doe and Prince Johnson. Oga surrender your
fight against Freedom, it is too much a force to reckon with. Peter Tosh
said he is like a walking razor, unstoppable. Freedom is a walking double
edged sword.

*WHY IS THE OBSERVER SILENT?*

"When two elephants fight, the grass suffers." It is the turn of State
trumpeter Saja Taal to dance. We will sit and watch what happens. The fight
is being brought to your door. You used to take it to other peoples' door,
now it is at your house. Move those "jamba" paraphernalia and create space
for the wrestle. Oga Jammeh is in the house with his electric broom.

Maybe the tussle is so swift that Taal has failed to report to Gambians
about the departure to Taiwan of the second batch of twenty five students to
Taipei University to study various disciplines among them petroleum and
Information Technology. Just in case he does not know, they left Thursday
September 13th 2007. "When the going gets tough, the tough keeps going" says
another wise man. Wasalam.

*THE READERS ARE ASKING*

It has been sometime since we last heard from Sadibu Jadama. I remember
reading an article by someone claiming that he was an agent of the state. He
neither refuted this but rather cleverly tilted the discussion another way.
After another story from the same writer, it seems our young gentleman has
either gone into hibernation or has decided to call it quits. So does this
say that he is a real agent of the state? Or was he writing in order to gain
favour with the Jammeh regime? Better still is he sick and bed ridden?
Whatever the cause for the silence, he knows best. Town Crier has said it,
truth will always outlast deception. Happy Ramadan. Wasalam.

* *

TOWN CRIER

Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2007 (Archive on Sunday, September 30, 2007)
Posted by PNMBAI Contributed by PNMBAI

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