By Adama Makasuba
Former Gambia Army Officer, Modou Lamin Bah has said that Lamin Colley a serving warrant officer class 2 of The Gambia Armed Forces killed Sergeant Fafa Nyan on November 11, 1994.
Mr. Bah, 51, testifying as 34th witness told the Truth Reconciliation and Reparation Commission while testifying on Tuesday at Dunes hotel, Kololi.
“No I denied that, I definitely denied because if it is an accidental shot he would not have landed his target, he would have hit his target. There are procedures in firing alright; you must have looked into foresight blade, to the tip blade in order to hit your target. A 47 is not like any other weapon,” he said.
He told the commission that if he was Colley that he would confessed on the truth that he killed Fafa Nyang, adding that Mr. Colley is trying to cover himself from guilt.
He said: “No Colley is just trying to build a cover up, but if I am Colley I would said I shot him, if I was him I would have said yes I killed him.”
“That’s is totally wrong, no that is not possible because a weapon that is slim, if there is an accidental fire or a negligence discharge then you either wound yourself or the shot would land somewhere very close to you, but it cannot travel to hit someone that’s not possible,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bah, who accepted enabling the coupis said Lieutenant Edward Singhateh did give him plans of the coup in 1994 saying plan (A) was to compensate each soldier while plan (B)was to kill all the senior soldiers, loot the Central Bank and flee the country if it failed.
Bah, who described himself as a terrible soldier then, said he was in support of the 1994 coup, saying the then vice president Saikou Sabally didn’t value the army and was in a plan dismantling the army.
He said: “I wanted the coup to succeed because the simple fact that when a minister can stand before all of us as soldiers and say what is the use of soldiers. Saikou Sabally respond was what the use of the army when you talk about the internal security is the police, when you talk about the protection of the VIP is the Gendarme. What is the use of the army and this doesn’t go well with the army.”