By Adama Makasuba
A member of 30 December 2014 attacked on State House in Banjul has told Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission that among their plans was to ambush former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh and get him arrested.
Modou Njie and other Gambian dissidents in late 2014 launched an offensive attack on the State House which resulted in the killing of some of his colleagues, and his arrest and jail to 11 years in prison
He said the attack was meant to free the country from ‘dictatorship’ and that the last option for them to do that was to “take up arms” to remove Jammeh from power.
“We bought weapon and shipped them to the Gambia and we were discussing on how to toppled him. We plan to ambush his convoy or we try to find him in a meeting and attacked, but all those plans failed and we finally went ahead to attack the State House.
“When we plan that we want to ambush Yahya Jammeh. It seemed he was controlling his movement because he was not moving out. Until when we heard Jammeh was about to travel and we planned to attack him at the airport. But I dismissed the option of shooting at him at the airport because I said if we shoot at him, we would kill lots of innocent Gambians,” he told the commission.
Meanwhile, he said his group was divided into two as they arrived at the State House to launch their attack, where some of his colleagues got shot and killed, while he got arrested and detained.
“We divided ourselves into two groups. One came through the front gate and the other went through the back gate. And we discussed that when we reached the sentry, we would tell them that we are one and we are on mission of freedom. But some people in there [State House] failed to talk to the soldiers. We attacked and I was part of those who went through the front gate. When we arrived at the sentry, we disarmed the men at the sentry and one of them we trained together refused to surrender. One of them was crying because he was a new intake,” he added.
He said: “but when we were about to pass the HMG so there was an officer signalling the other officer where we are and they shot Lamin Sanneh and fell down and Njaga was trying to rescue him and that was where they shot at him also. And I was calling Njaga but he was not responding, and he later responded. That was the time he had died. There were many shots but I believe the shot on his head killed him.”
Meanwhile, he said: “I decided to go near the president’s house and some people tried to halt me but I pretended as if I was their commander. I was armed with everything and I saw my class and I called him and he replied and said Njie how are you and I said don’t worry let’s try to complete this.
“But when I reached the garden of general, I said I can climb the fence and go away but I said hence I see people whom I knew let me just convince them so that we can complete the task. I approached him and he started to move back and I removed my helmet and said is me,” he said.
“That was the time I saw Savage crossed in the midst of the soldiers. Savage came behind me and hit me with a gun and he wrestled me down and all of them joined him and they started beating and kicking me.
“One of them ran and said stop if you kill this man where can we get information. They removed my nails in order to stop me from firing because when Savage took my gun and I left with a pistol. They dropped me naked and tight me up and dragged me up and sustained brushes,” he added.
