The leader of Gambia’s main opposition United Democratic
Party (UDP), Mr Ousainou Darboe, has been questioned by the the
National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in Banjul following the death of his
propaganda secretary Momodou Lamin Shyngle Nyassi.
Mr Nyassi died in New York on Monday evening.
Mr Darboe reported to the NIA on Wednesday and was
escorted to the UDP political bureau in Banjul where police conducted a
search in the offices, before going back with the opposition leader.
Supporters swarmed the environs of the NIA headquarters to confirm their leader was safe and alive.
Though the purpose of the questioning was not made clear, Mr Darboe was back in his office later after which he went home.
“This country will be liberated. This country will become free. This country will be a country where justice will prevail. Inshallah!” the opposition leader told a press conference at his residence.
The opposition in Gambia received the news of Mr
Nyassi’s death with shock, amid troubling times for the UDP when its
national treasurer, Mr Amadou Sanneh, and three other officials were in
custody over alleged asylum issues.
“Shyngle Nyassi’s death is one of those events
that will never be forgotten. He was a political institution. He was a
giant,” said Mr Darboe.
True democracy
He said Mr Nyassi represented the face of the
struggle against tyranny, injustice and tribalism, further describing
him as a man who suffered for his nation, and lived and died for it.
Prayers for Mr Nyassi will be held in a New York
mosque on Friday then the body transported for burial Sunday at Brikana,
in Gambia's West Coast region.
As far as the Gambian government was concerned, Mr Nyassi was nothing but a common criminal, a position UDP ridiculed.
Another UDP figure who had been arrested and subjected to brutal treatment was Karamo Touray, an imam.
The ruling AFRC party dismisses the UDP as a
Mandinka party, but Mr Darboes says that though he was proud of being
Mandinka, he cherished the values of other communities.
The opposition leader said tribalism had no place
in Gambia, adding that different communities in Gambia have co-existed
and will continue to do so.
Mr Darboe described the late Mr Nyassi as a
de-ethnicised person, despite coming from the same Jola community to
which President Yahya Jammeh belongs.
“What we want is to unite our diverse people so that we can achieve the common good for ourselves,” he said.
Mr Darboe described Gambia’s withdrawal from the
Commonwealth as reckless, saying that President Jammeh was afraid of a
human rights commission for Gambia which the Commonwealth had suggested.
“We have been accused of being sponsored by the UK
and the US. We are not ashamed off being friends of the United States
and United Kingdom. We share the same values with them; values of
respect for the rule of law, values of justice and values of true
democracy,” he said.
SOURCE: AFRICA REVIEW
SOURCE: AFRICA REVIEW
