By: Yunus S Saliu
Prior the official hand over of the exhumed remains of the December 30th 2014 victims to their families slated for today, Wednesday, 9th January 2019 for final burial, The Gambia Center for Victims of Human Rights Violations and family members of the victims yesterday gathered at the Victims Center in Kotu to remember and eulogize the trio’s worthy self-sacrifice for the nation.
The renowned victims, late Captain Njaga Mamour Jagne, Lieutenant Colonel Lamin Sanneh and Alhaji Jaja Nyass put their lives on line with the intention to free the nation and people of The Gambia from the brutality of The Gambia’s former dictatorship – Professor Alhaji Yahya AJJ Jammeh who had ruled the country from July 22nd 1994 until January 19th 2017 before been forced into exile after his defeat in December 1st 2016 presidential election, but unfortunately the trio paid the ultimate prize as they lost their lives in the hands of the dictator’s guards.
The remains of the late trio soldiers will officially hand over to their families today at the Ministry of Justice, Banjul for final rite scheduled for Friday, 11 January, 2019.
Babucarr Njie, member of the Gambia Center for Victims of Human Rights Violations elaborated on the gathering which he said meant for appreciation and recognition of the fallen heroes for their self-sacrifice during the December 30th 2014 incident. He added that the gathering was also meant to inform the Gambia population about the victims’ intention and reason for taken the bold step to do what they have done as many still not understand why they took such risk.
When the event happened, he said the former President Yahya AJJ Jammeh declared it as an attack on the State House but the verse majority of Gambians appreciated the sacrifices made by the December 30th group “knowing that they laid their lives to free the Gambia from dictatorship.”
He noted that all the victims were all in one way or another living a good and comfortable life abroad and support their family back home in The Gambia but been concerned Gambians abroad over those terrible years “they decided to come together to do something to stop the brutality,” he stated.
The family members of the three fallen heroes and members of the victim center all spoke extensively about the victims.
Ya Yassin Jobe, Mba Meita Jagne and Abdul Nyansi on behalf of their families all gave full biographies their fallen sons Captain Njaga Mamour Jagne, Lieutenant Colonel Lamin Sanneh and Alhaji Jaja Nyass respectively while Ya Mami Ceesay on behalf of the victim center as well made speech.
However, it could be recalled that sometimes in 2017, Gambia Police Force exhumed the remains of the people that involved in the December 30th 2014 attack at State House from identified secret location in Foni. After the exhumed of the remains, series of forensic exercises were carried out on them to determine the identities of the remains which they have now positively identified.
In light of the above, the government will officially hand over the exhumed remains to their family members at the Ministry of Justice by 11 am and the remains of the three victims will finally laid to rest Friday, January 11th 2019 at Kanifing East Estate Mosque known as Imam Baba Leigh mosque as the burial will take place at the Kanifing Burial Grounds.
About December 30th 2014 Attack
The December 30th group attacked the State House before the dawn of December 30th 2014 but the group of soldier was repelled by the former forces guarding the State House. This unexpected event warranted the ex-president Yahya AJJ Jammeh who was on a travelling visit of Dubai to returned back to the country. Upon his arrival at the State House he called the incident ‘an attack by dissidents based in the US, Germany and UK.’ He said ‘this was not a coup. This was an attack by a terrorist group backed by some powers that I would not name.’ Despite saying that the armed forces “are very loyal” still, dozens of them were arrested.
