Police Question Daily News Reporters Over Tuesday Lead Story

“New Police Line In Deplorable State.”  

By Pa Nderry M’Bai, Raleigh, NC

Police in The Gambia Tuesday invited two lead reporters of the Banjul based newspaper-the Daily News for questioning, the Freedom Newspaper can report. Reporter Saikou Ceesay and Lamin Njie were briefly held for questioning shortly before their unconditional release late Tuesday afternoon, sources here said. The journalists were being grilled over a leader story, in which the paper highlighted about the “ appalling” sanitary conditions at the new Banjul police line. The Daily News reported that “The new police line in Banjul occupied by families of police is in an appalling state. Structures at the complex are dilapidated; with poor sanitary conditions as most latrines were dysfunctional.”

The questioned Daily news reporters said they recently visited the complex and “noticed these conditions, the state of the buildings and lack of security for the families of the police. The new police line is without a gate, looking at the physical structures of the buildings one would notice that the two storey-buildings had serious cracks on the walls, broken window glasses and doors. In fact some of the latrines and houses were completely abandoned and looked like ghost houses due to the state of the buildings. The drainage system was equally in a bad state.”

Even though the paper’s reporters sought the reaction of the police spokesman  Assistant Superintendent Sulayman Secka, who informed them that the police maintenance team is working on the maintenance of police barracks in Banjul, the journalists were called in for questioning. The news report doesn’t seem to go down well with the police command.

 PRO Secka was quoted as saying that “The maintenance team is already at the end of work at the old police line. After the completion of the old police line the team will move to the new police line for general maintenance of the entire complex.”

The Freedom Newspaper contacted one of the Editors of the Daily news, who confirmed the questioning of his colleagues: Njie and Ceesay by the police. The Editor said the two reporters were accompanied by their boss Madi Ceesay and have since returned to work without being charged. The Editor said the reporters questioning had to do with their Tuesday lead story in which the paper reported about the deplorable sanitary conditions at the Banjul new police line.