The
circumstances surrounding the death in custody of Solo Sandeng, the United
Democratic Party Youth Mobiliser, is still unclear, but as the due process of
law is unfolding all will certainly come to know how actually he died, and who
really caused his death.
Since
the exhumation of his remains on 4 March 2017, for a thorough post-mortem at
the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, a series of arrests have been made,
which has amounted to nine people of the former National Intelligence Agency
(NIA) facing about 12 charges including conspiracy to commit felony,
misdemeanor, murder and forgery.
We,
therefore, uphold the truth that there will be no peace without justice in any
society; so let justice take its course in The Gambia.
This
is more so because the arrests, detentions and subsequent deaths of many people
under the Jammeh regime are there for all to note.
Whilst
some lost their lives in the prisons due to ill health, others were allegedly
summarily killed and buried somewhere by members of the then state security
apparatus.
For
22 years, so many lives were gruesomely taken under the Jammeh regime,
including that of our own co-publisher and managing editor, Deyda Hydara.
Up
until this day, no thorough investigations and or fact-finding were carried out
by the then powers that be.
The
agony and pain, as well as the distress and emotional torture of such
horrendous happening, is still felt by not only the direct or immediate family
members and friends of the victims, but also large sectors of our population
who detest such heinous human rights abuses by the former regime.
Lives
lost in this manner cut across families, disciplines, professions and sectors
of our society – which include security officers, civil servants, politicians
and journalists.
So
many incidents of alleged killings and burying in places like the coastal
village of Tanji in Kombo South, where Solo’s remains were exhumed, are
rumoured all around the country.
It
is, therefore, essential that such matters are being taken up and pursued.
The
new government should leave no stone unturned in getting to the facts of those
murdered, and the whereabouts of some of the missing people like journalist
Chief Manneh, under the custody of the Jammeh regime.
The
majority of our people in this country want the new government to set up a
truth and justice commission to unearth the facts and remains of those ‘cases’.
The
only thing that can set us free is the truth, and nothing but the truth. So
let’s go for it.
“Justice
delayed is justice denied.”
William
E. Gladstone
