By Adama Makasuba
Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, leader of the United Democratic Party, has said that UDP supporters were ambushed at Denton Bridge by elements of the Gambia Armed Forces during campaign period in 1996.
Testifying before the Truth, Reparation and Reconciliation Commission during testifying yesterday at Dunes hotel in Kotu, Darboe said UDP supporters were ambushed at Denton tortured and brutalize and that he was told Yankuba Touray was among the torturers during a campaign period ahead of the 1996 presidential election at the behest of Jammeh.
Mr. Daboe, 71, said that “I have no evidence but I have a claim that pregnant women were manhandled. I was the principal target of that ambush and the security adviser-Mr. Fatty advise me to go to Pipeline,” he said.
“Yankuba Touray did said when I returned from the provinces I will be burnt,” Lawyer Darboe told the commission.
Meanwhile he said: “we know we have won that election, we don’t believe but we knew we have won that election. They stole that election from us.”
He told the commission that the APRC government was intimidating the members of his party in order for UDP to lose confidence and moral to archiving their political goals.
Further testifying, he said his party agents were denied presence at all the polling stations in 1996, describing the act as ‘unscrupulous.’
Lawyer Darboe whose testimony came as a surprise to many is the first political heads in the Gambia to testify before the Truth, Reparation and Reconciliation Commission.
The Truth Commission resumed its fifth hearings session on Monday after more a month break and mandate to probe into the human rights violations and crimes occurred under leadership of ex-president Yahya Jammeh.
Mr. Jammeh, who ruled the Gambia for 22-years, went into exile in Equatorial Guinea after a threat from the forces regional bloc West African States ECOWAS.