Abdoulie G. Dibba
Today Friday 10th April 2015 marks 40 days of Haruna Gassama’s arrest
and detention.
Haruna Gassama, the current President of the Central River Rice
Farmers’ Cooperative Ltd who was arrested since on Monday 2nd March
2015 at Brikamaba in the Lower Fulladou District Central River RegionSouth of the Republic of the Gambia, has now spent 40 days in detention at the
National Intelligence Agency Headquarter in Banjul.
Haruna was arrested on the day the staff of the Sheriff Division
were in the Lower Fulladu District executing the order of the
Judgment delivered by Justice Penda Dibba on the 12th of January 2015
in favour of the plaintiff (Haruna Gassama )and his committee members in which
she ordered the defendants Alhagi Musa Gimbo Trawally and his
committee to forthwith hand over the affairs and assets of the Rice
Farmers Cooperative Society LTD to the duly elected Executive of the
Rice Farmers Cooperative Society LTD headed by Haruna Gassama and his
committee.
A family source informs this reporter that their loved one is still
detained at the NIA Office in Banjul but they are yet to have access
to him.
Editor’s Note:- Section 19 subsection (3)(b) categorically states
that “Any person who is arrested or detained , upon reasonable
suspicion of his or her having committed, or being about to commit a
criminal offence under the laws of The Gambia, and who is not
released, shall be brought without undue delay before a court and, in
any event, within seventy-two hours”.
The adage of the Legal profession dictates that justice delayed is
justice denied but may it be added that unconstitutional pre-trial
detention is impunity!]]>
