By Mustapha Jallow
Fatou Sonko, the mother , and Essa Bojang, the father , of the late
Dawda Bojang, former personnel of the Gambia Armed Forces (GAF), arestill being held at the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) since theirarrest on New Year’s day 2015.
Their son, Dawda Bojang, was reported to have been involved and killed
in the armed attack on state house on 30 December 2014.The two, however, was traced at the NIA in Banjul by relatives only
recently, after they were picked up at their home village of Mbankam
in the Nuimi district of the North Bank Region of the country.
According to a family source, three men in plain clothes, who said
they were from the Amdalai Police station, whisked the two away in a
waiting vehicle to an unknown place. The source revealed that they
have visited the Amdalai, Barra and Banjul police stations to look for
their loved ones but were told that the two was not in their custody.
Fatou, who works in the garden, has been very supportive to the
family since the husband suffers partial disability with his left leg,
revealed the family source.
The source also said that they have heard from the announcement on the
radio that Dawda Bojang was killed during the incident in Banjul but
has not been formally informed by the state officials.
He said the family is appealing for the release of the two whose
absence creates a big vacuum in the family.
Organisations for the rights and welfare of Women and the disabled may
be interested in these two cases as the continued detention of this
married couple without releasing or subjecting them to due process
violates both national and international laws such as the 72 hour
requirement of the Constitution of The Gambia, the Women’s Act 2010,
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),
United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights, among other protocols and
conventions dealing with the rights of people.]]>
