Lamin Korta, a retired officer of The Gambia Prison Services (GPS) has described former Director General of Prison, David Colley a stooge to the ex-President Yahya Jammeh who was using the prison as a punishment centre.
Korta who was testifying before the country’s Truth Commission on Tuesday, said the objective of the prison has been changed from that of reformation to punishment centre under the dictatorial regime of Yahya Jammeh for 22 years.
“David Colley was a stooge of Yahya Jammeh,” Lamin Korta said.
The witness further explained outside interference in the prison administration by the former President who used to call the prison a 5 Star Hotel.
“When Jammeh called the prison his 5 Star Hotel, it means that he is the CEO of the Prisons and David was his General Manager,” he remarked.
The witness said he was enrolled in the Prisons Service before the former DG David Colley who was only a bar keeper at prison at the time. He explained the relationship between the former President Yahya Jammeh and David Colley both natives of Kanilai village.
The Prisons veteran told the Truth Commission that David Colley used to implement whatever the former President Yahya Jammeh assigned him whether lawful or unlawful.
“Whenever there is gross violation of human rights, the law is always silence,” he said.
Korta described the prison conditions under the Jammeh regime, as a place for physical, mental and psychological torture. He talked about the illegal detention of top civil servants, security officers, politicians and business people at the Security Wing of the Mile 2 Central Prisons.
“They would be detained without any document and knowledge of their families,” he remarked.
According to him, the detainees were denied visits or any outside food and forced to eat the poor diet of the prison. He said the directives would come through DG Colley who would instruct the prison officers to execute the orders.
“Most of the punishments in the prison are executive directives,”-korta told the Truth Commission.
Meanwhile, the witness has given detail explanation of the tortures, cell congestion and poor diet of the State Central Prisons. He also mentioned the beri beri that was a common sickness that killed several prisoners
