By Mustapha Jallow
A former Director of National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDEA), Mr. Pa Habib Mbye, has been arrested and detained at the 
National Intelligence Agency (NIA) headquarters in Banjul since on Sunday, 20 December, 2015. A family source says he is denied access to them.
According to the source Mr. Mbye was arrested at his home in Tallinding around 10 pm. Some members of the NIA came with a vehicle with tinted glasses, picked him up and took him to their headquarters where he is currently held. He has been held incommunicado for 12 days now.
The family of the former NDEA head said when they went to the NIA office on the following day they were denied access to see their loved one, which they added is a concern to them. ‘‘We do not know what to do now unless we file a case in the court to secure his release. We have been visiting the NIA headquarters on several occasions but all our efforts to access him since his arrest before ‘Gamo’ has been in vain,’’ a distressful family member said.
However, the family is calling on the authorities who arrested their loved one to facilitate the release their sole breadwinner or grant him a bail.
The Constitution of the 1997 second republic of the Gambia has stated in section 19 subsection (3) (b) that, “Any person who is arrested or detained… who is not released, shall be brought without undue delay before a court of law and, in any event, within 72 hours.”
