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Gambian President Ordered
Killing of 44 Ghanaians - Report
Kweku Asare, Ghanadot, ACCRA
Accra, August 9, 2007, Ghanadot.com - Two years after 44
Ghanaians and 10 other ECOWAS nationals were reported killed
in The Gambia, evidence has emerged that Gambian President,
Yahaya Jammeh, ordered their execution.
Consequently, Sekouba Jadana, until recently a top Gambian
Police Officer has called for the trial of President Jammeh
by the International Criminal Court of Justice for crime
against humanity.
Ghanaian Police Sources told Ghanadot.com on Thursday that
the order for execution came apparently because President
Jammeh was made to believe that they were dissidents
preparing to overthrow his infant regime.
“Intensive investigations by the Criminal Investigation
Department of the Ghana Police in The Gambia and Senegal,
have established that all the victims were butchered at the
command of The Gambian Head of State,” Police sources said
in Accra.
"The debate on the issue has been going on for sometime now
and I believe that it is time for the whole world to take
note and prepare ways and means of bringing His Excellency,
Dr Alhaji Yahaya to justice”, Mr Jadana said, adding that,
“Jammeh should face the International Criminal Court since
he spearheaded the 'Ghanaian genocide' in the Gambia,"
Jadana said in his statement.
"The Ghanaian Government should ensure that justice is seen
to be done in this high-profile crime against humanity.
Sincerely, I was not present when the gruesome murders of
the Ghanaians took place on that fateful night in the
Gambia, but I was involved in the investigations at the
preliminary stages," Jadana added.
Top officials of the Ghanaian Police CID said a full report
has been submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Regional Integration and NEPAD which requested the
investigation immediately after the gruesome act was brought
before it some two years ago under the watch of then then
Foreign Minister, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
At the CID head office in Accra on Wednesday, journalists
learnt that at least one Ghanaian survivor, known only as
Okeyere has given a detailed account of the massacre.
The 44 Ghanaians and their colleagues, according to the
police, were using The Gambia as a transit point, possibly
for migration, to Europe in search of greener pastures.
Mr. Kwasi Osei Adjei, Minister of Foreign Affairs Regional
Integration and NEPAD, confirmed that the report has been
submitted to his office. "I will study it and take the
necessary action.”
"I was asked about the murder of the Ghanaians during my
vetting in Parliament. It is a matter of serious concern to
Ghanaians that innocent countrymen could be cruelly murdered
simply because they have been found in a fellow ECOWAS
country," he said.
Information linking the murders to the Gambian President
began to make the rounds in The Gambia recently, when the
top Gambian police officer broke ranks with the
administration and went public with details of the
atrocities in a report to Freedom Newspaper, Gambia's
premier online publication.
The Internet publication was reproduced by a Ghanaian
newspaper, Public Agenda on Monday, July 9, in which, Jadana
gave vivid account of how the Ghanaians and other nationals
were summarily executed by state security guards and dumped
in a bush.
Giving the background, Jadana alleged that President Jammeh
and a host of his ministers were at a cultural jamboree in
Banjul, the national capital, organised as part of
activities marking the country's independence anniversary,
when a telephone call came from an official of the National
Investigation Authority indicating that some West African
nationals had been arrested and that their motives were to
destabilise the anniversary celebrations and that there was
an imminent security threat.
An order was allegedly given for their arrest with further
instructions from the Head of State to deal with them. "His
Excellency was advised to return to the State House
immediately and walahi (swearing) he ran, and was saying
deal with them! deal with them! and he was trembling while
going home."
Jadana further alleged that even though the ferry over the
Gambia River had closed at the time, an order was given for
it to transport the captives across the river and head
towards Brufur, a town at the other side of the river.
"Our investigation team went to Brufur and discovered that
the bodies were scattered all over the bushes with deep cuts
from heads to eyes and broken noses."
According to Jadana, who allegedly dispatched his findings
from the Police headquarters in Banjul, there was news
blackout on the discovery of the bodies. 'The news of the
brutal murders was not covered by the national radio and
television at all," he said.
President Jammeh failed to turn up in Accra for the Summit
of African Heads of State and Governments held in Accra on
July 1-3. Observers believe the murder of the 44 Ghanaians
and other nationals was the principal reason why he failed
to turn up.
Ghanaian authorities had been originally tight-lipped over
the matter, not wanting to damage the cordial relationship
with its English speaking ECOWAS neighbour.
Kweku Asare, ACCRA, August 9, Ghanadot.com
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