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By Pierre Njie
Ansumana Manneh, the Director General of the Gambia Prison Services (GPS) has on Monday testified before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) at the Dunes Hotel in Kololi.
The Prison department’s boss informed the truth commission that the Gambia Prisons were used by the previous government as a center to punish political opponents.
He said many politicians, service chiefs and senior government officials who had problems with the former regime were brought to Mile II prison by the NIA without following the due process of the law or the Prison Act. Manneh disclosed that the former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Lang Tombong Tamba was brought to the Mile II while he was unconscious , adding that he was brutally tortured at the NIA while under detention at the prison. He explained that Lang Tombong was received at the gate by one prison officer called Ebrima Ceesay on that very day. The prisons’ boss stated that Ebrima Ceesay complained about the way Lang Tombong was manhandled and he too was sacked.
He said: “Technically, the prison is a place meant to rehabilitate and to build capacities of inmates to become useful and better persons in society after their release, but unfortunately this was not the case under the former regime of Yahya Jammeh.”
“Officers of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) now called State Intelligence Services (SIS) used to escort detainees or inmates to the prison without bringing an official document to authenticate their incarceration. People were brought to the prison with blatant violation of the law. We were always scared to ask the NIA to explain how they brought us detainees who were not remanded or convicted by the law courts,” he disclosed.
More updates from his testimony will follow as revelations are being made.