Yahya Dampha, Chief Executive Officer of Centre for Human Rights and Development the Gambia, has accused the Director General of the Defunct National Intelligence Agency, now State Intelligence Service of ‘right abuses’.
Dampha, who was in exile in Sweden also an investigative journalist in the country said: “Mr. Sowe must have arrested someone illegally or have participated in torturing someone.”
He added: “According to my investigation, I found out that the office where some of the tortures were made… it was reported that there was blood streak attached on the wall, but they have painted the wall. That is destruction of evidence.”
In an exclusive interview with The Voice, Dampha said that he thought the government should have shutdown the NIA headquarters and made it to a museum for education.
But this, he continued: “Although I have no facts on that but the country is very small, there are people who were arrested and tortured by the NIA, they could say Mr. Sowe took them to the NIA headquarter or say he was present when the people were beating them.”
He said prior to his flew into exile; he was arrested and tortured on several occasions by the Gambian security.
He added that: “If the alleged human rights abuses were made under his [Sowe] command or watched, then he is guilty of crime against humanity.”
He further said that he will not be surprised when DG Sowe name is mentioned by someone at the TRRC, saying if Ousman Sowe is a ‘culprit’, he shouldn’t have been appointed as DG of SIS.
Meanwhile, he concluded that DG Sowe would either be called to testify at the Truth Reconciliation and Reparation Commission or testify as a witness of alleged human right abuses occurred under the regime of ex-president Jammeh.
Author: Sulayman Waan
