Man recounts son’s death during demonstration, abduction of 62 by ‘witch doctors’, 32 survivors, 18 dead

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By AWA SECKA-JAWARA

Abdoulie Bojang, a 61-year-old man, native of Jamburr, Kombo South, West Coast Region and ex-member of the Gambia Police Force (GPF) has said that his eldest son Lamin A. Bojang who was an 18-year-old student at Nusrat Senior Secondary School was shot by members of Police Intervention Unit (PIU) known as paramilitary.

Testifying before Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission (TRRC) the father whose son was gunned down during the April 10/11, 2000 student demonstration added that he was out of town as he left for Basse, Upper River Region with his wife on the April 9, 2000 to attend a meeting.

Son’s death
“And when we arrived at Basse while I was attending the meeting Jiminga Sonko came to me and asked if I was aware of the demonstration happening around the Kombo area and I said no,” he stated.

He narrated that when he came back the following day and realized that his son wasn’t at home he went to the hospital in Banjul and it was very busy there that day and people were crying and later Dr. Ceesay informed him that his son was dead.

Bojang said he then went to the mortuary to be shown the corpse of his son who was shot in the right side of his head.

“After the April 10/11 student demonstration a Commission of Inquiry was set up to investigate the matter and I was later arrested and taken to court because of my comments about the police officers,” he explained.

Concoction and deaths
On the 2009 “witch hunting” exercise allegedly spear headed by former President Yahya Jammeh, the witness added that the “witch doctors” came to Jamburr and abducted 62 individual to Kololi and gave them concoction to drink forcefully.

He narrated that after drinking the concoction 32 people survived and 18 died due to the concoction they drank.

He stated that the “witch hunting” exercise caused the death of their village Imam and Village Development Committee (VDC) chairman, Dembo Jareh Bojang.

“These people were those moving the village forward,” he explained.

The witness said former president Yahya Jammeh denied students their right to demonstrate without reasons, advising that the happenings of the past should not be repeated again.