The
child of the late Ousman Darboe, a Sierra Leonean who was reportedly killed by
personnel of the Anti Crime Unit of The Gambia Police Force is on the brink of
being a school dropout due to lack of money for school fees.
A
father of two, Ousman at the time of his demise on 23 July 2019, was a mobile
phones and laptops trader at the Serrekunda Market. He was married to a Gambian
Binta Jaiteh.
“The
objectives of my husband have always been to ensure that our children achieve
quality education with a view to enable them contribute immensely towards
nation building,” his widow Binta Jaiteh said in tears. “However, I can tell
you that his dreams of ensuring that our children reach university level are
collapsing.”
After
the death of Ousman Darboe, government vowed to probe the incident in order to
establish the cause of his death.
“I
think even if the government conducts a post-mortem examination, I believe as
family, we should have access to the result especially myself as the deceased’s
wife. Seven months to now, I haven’t seen any result from the government. I
just heard people saying that the government claimed my husband died as a
result of ‘asthma.’ But even if this was the case, we deserve to know the
truth,” she complained.
She
added. “I am 100% sure that my husband didn’t die as a result of ‘asthma’.
Probably, people that are outside would not know how my husband and I were
living. If he was attacked by asthma, he would not have driven to the Anti
Crime Unit. What I can tell you is that because Ousman was not a Gambian, so
nothing will come out in this matter.”
Her
late husband, she added, was the breadwinner of the family. “I can tell you
that it’s been six months I didn’t pay my house rents. In fact, if it was not
the understanding of my landlord, I would have been homeless by now. Things are
very bad for us at the moment,” she said.
According
to her, thanks to the help of Allah that her girl child was able to get
sponsor. “However, my son still couldn’t get sponsor. In fact, she said her son
is not going to school now because the school authorities vowed to send out of
school any child who doesn’t pay his/her school fee.”
The
matter, she went on, needs to be investigated by independent body. “How will my
children feel when they grow up and know the people who killed their father? Do
you think they will not be enemies? The way they treated Ousman was not fair,”
she stated.
Binta
Jaiteh said she had to involve in petty trading in order to take care of
herself and her children.
On
24 July 2019, after being reported that Ousman died as a result of police
torture, thousands of Gambians mainly young people thronged the Serrekunda
Market protesting his death.
The
protesters carried banners with different descriptions such as; “Say No to
Police Brutality;” “We don’t need Anti-Crime Unit in our society they are
secret killers” and “we don’t need another brutality or dictatorship that would
continue killing young people,” among
others.
The
protest led to the arrest of 37 youth by the police and eventually charged with
eight criminal counts including arson, unlawful assembly and rioters
demolishing building.
Police
spokesperson, Lamin Njie, was contacted earlier for comments. He said the
matter is supposed to be investigated by Ministry of the Interior. However, all
efforts to reach the minister of the Interior proved futile.
