Where then could Chief Manneh be?

Over the years, there have been a lot of explanations and conflicting reports from senior government officials regarding the fate of our missing colleague, Chief Ebrima Manneh.

Chief Ebrima Manneh was a former reporter with the Daily Observer newspaper, and reportedly disappeared since July 2006.

While some speculated that he might have gone through the back way to Europe, and possibly perished in the ocean, others said he was in the US.

But the family has always disputed all that, with the father asserting that was not the case.

I would be recalled that a former minister of Justice also once declared that Chief is alive, and is somewhere.

We share the feelings of Chief Manneh’s father when he wondered how some one could get missing in a small country like The Gambia, without trace for years now.

The protection of lives and property in any country should be the responsibility of the government.

While we join our colleagues in commending the police for apprehending the alleged killers of the British national recently, we urge them to deploy similar efforts in tracking down Chief Manneh, and the killers of our own Deyda Hydara.

We are once again calling on the Gambia government to re-launch an investigation into the killing of Deyda, and to help traced our missing colleague, who was said to have been the bread-winner of the family.

The Gambian people, the media fraternity, family of Chief Manneh and the international community needs a convincing explanation about the whereabouts of our missing colleague, in the interest of the public’s right to know.