By Mustapha Jallow
Two soldiers SSgt. Samba Jawo and SSgt. Draman Jahateh, were moved from the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) 
headquarters to Yundum Barracks on Thursday, 15 December, 2016, around 4pm for further detention since their arrest on 30 November 2016, a family source revealed.
This comes in the wake of a publication of the matter by this paper on that same Thursday, 15 December. “Several attempts to get the NIA agents to give us access to our loved one did not materialise until Thursday evening when I received a phone call that our brother and Jahateh were returned to the Barracks and are currently in the custody of Military Police (MP),” Jewo Jawo, a sister to Samba disclosed.
She added that now they have been allowed access to them but still they do not know the reason(s) why they are held.
One of the sisters of SSgt Samba, had walked into Foroyaa’s office on 14 December, and reported that her brother and SSgt Jahateh are close friends who were picked up at night in the Yundum Barracks. “They were arrested before the election and since Friday, we have been calling his cell phone but it was switched off. At first we thought they were on standby as is the case during the election period but later one of his colleagues told us that our brother is under arrest and was seen being taken away by the state agents,’’ she said.
The sister, including other family members had earlier made several attempts to visit him at NIA so as to enquire from the agents about their loved ones, but the agents always told them that they do not know Samba Jawo or Draman.
SSgt. Jawo and SSgt. Jahateh were held incommunicado at the NIA for 16 days before being handed over back to the MP at the Barracks. Their continued detention contravenes the Constitution which stipulates that a person detained should be released within 72 hours or taken to court.
