As a beginner, I learnt a lot from my edited stories because I used to read them after publication. I really enjoyed working with the staff because I was treated like a member of their own families. In fact, at the “The Independent” company, there was love and mutual understanding within the staff.
Abdoulie Sey, Alagie Yorro Jallow, Baba Galleh Jallow, Sanna Camara, Alieu Darboe, Lamin Njie, Juldeh Sowe, Ejatou Jallow (deceased), Habib Ceesay (deceased), Pa Modou Secka, Buya Jammeh, Ahmed Carayol (deceased), Sainabou Kujabi, Alimatou Jarra, Seedy Bojang etc. formed part of “The Independent” team.
I used to enjoy Baba Galleh’s short stories. One had to be able to read between the lines to understand them. Seedy Bojang also used to write very interesting articles which I really enjoyed.
Because of Sanna Camara’s good investigative stories, I would crack a joke with him by telling him that he would lead and others follow. We would laugh over it.
The way Lamin Njie was running his pen was exceptional. Alieu Darboe ran him a close second. Ejatou’s Children Column always caught my attention.
Buya Jammeh, my friend, was very good at writing court stories. We used to go to Kanifing Magistrates’ Court to cover cases. He once wrote a story about the magistrates who were lambasted by litigants. When I told him that I enjoyed reading his story, he said to me: “The magistrates have to do their work.” You would see Buya smiling, being confident. Those days have gone.
As I was one day covering court cases at the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court, I came across the late Modou Sanyang, Sarata Jabbi and Bakary Samateh, all of “The Point” newspaper. They were later joined by Modou Kanteh as a court reporter.
We used to exchange ideas after covering cases. We would time and again go through each other’s note book to see if we had not missed anything. We used to work together as brothers and sister, although we were writing for different newspapers. There was cooperation and we were a nice team.
On the 17th December, 2004, as we were covering cases at the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court, I saw the late Modou Sanyang, Bakary Samateh and Sarata Jabbi walking out of the courtroom with sad faces. They did not speak to me. I wondered what went wrong.
My friend prosecutor, First Class 1748 Mballow, said to me on the same day after the late Modou Sanyang and the others had left: “Have you heard what happened?”
“No,” I replied.
“Deyda Hydara was killed yesterday,” he told me.
I could not believe my ears. I was really taken by surprise. I wondered what he had done to be killed like that.
“Dawda, it is better to leave this job,” my friend Mballow advised me.
“No amount of threat will make me to leave my job,” I told him.
Deyda’s death is really a loss to the media fraternity. A loss indeed!
I have never worked with Deyda. I joined “The Point” newspaper after his demise. A lot of people had testified that he was a humble and kind personality. Some of the staff had described him as an educator and a humanitarian. “Deyda was a good Muslim and very generous. He was kind-hearted,” the late Modou Sanyang told me.
I know for sure that Deyda used to fight for press freedom. In fact I read one of his articles published on the 15th December, 2004, in which he defended the freedom of the press. He mentioned the obnoxious media laws that have deterred the progress of journalists. And on the following day, 16th December, 2004, he was murdered. People then asked who his murderers were.
Former President Yahya Jammeh ridiculed him by saying that Deyda was engaged in uncalled for behavior. He suggested that this was why he was murdered by a private individual. His government denied any involvement in Deyda’s death.
This is incredible! Didn’t the whole world hear Malick Jatta reveal at the Truth, Reparations and Reconciliation Commission that Alieu Jeng, Tumbul Tamba, Sanna Manjang and himself killed Deyda in a drive-by shooting on Yahya Jammeh’s orders? “Yahya Jammeh paid us in dollars and when I converted my share into dalasis, I scored more than D50,000 as a token of appreciation for killing Deyda Hydara,” he told the Commission.
How wicked these perpetrators are! They had deprived Deyda Hydara’s children of their father. Do they know what it means when you lost a loving father?
It is good news that ECOWAS has approved the establishment of a special tribunal for The Gambia to try perpetrators who committed heinous atrocities during Yahya Jammeh’s era.
Now we know that Malick Jatta, Alieu Jeng, Tumbul Tamba and Sanna Manjang killed Deyda Hydara. President Adama Barrow’s government should not drag its feet to try these perpetrators and others at the special tribunal. The victims have waited for so long. Justice should prevail. There should be no sacred cow.
