PARENTS OF LATE DAWDA BOJANG STILL HELD AT NIA

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.]]>