By Kebba AnsuManneh
The veteran Journalist and Co-Publisher of The Point Newspaper has disclosed to The Voice newspaper how he escaped death at the night of Mr Deyda Hydara’s killing – 16th December, 2004.
Pap Saine, a multiple award winning journalist and business mogul made this disclosure on the sidelines of the 30th anniversary of The Point Newspaper coincided with the 17th anniversary of the killing of Mr Deyda Hydara.
“The day Deyda was killed coincided with our 13th anniversary of The Point Newspaper, I was supposed to join him in the same car but all of a sudden I cancelled (the decision). I couldn’t join because of the demise of my brother but after 10pm I tried to reach him but I couldn’t,” Mr Saine explained how he escaped death.
He added: “I think it was God’s desire that I didn’t join in the same vehicle with him that’s how eventually escaped the death. It was God’s desire too to spare me from dying alongside with my colleague on that faithful day.”
According to him, the killing of Mr Hydara was greeted with great shock and disbelieve to him and many more Gambians, arguing that his life was characterised with informing, educating, entertaining and defending rule of law, justice and democracy.
The Veteran Journalist continued that the formation of The Point Newspaper was anchored on the need to fill the vacuum of the availability of tabloid newspaper in the country. He added that since the inception of The Point Newspaper they have been promoting rule of law, good governance and democracy.
He affirmed that though the demised of his colleague was very painful and shocking but with the desire to keep informing the masses keeps the paper going and since then the paper has won seven international awards in USA; Germany; South Africa; Zambia; Dubai and Morocco as well as more than seventeen (27) awards locally.
Also speaking to The Voice Newspaper is Mr Baba Hydara, son to late Deyda Hydara, he described the double anniversary as that of a mix-feeling, adding that the founders and The Point Newspaper were committed to their works of informing the masses at all cost even after the demised of his father, Deyda Hydara. “This 30th anniversary of The Point Newspaper is a day of mix-feelings not only to me but to the entire family.
We wish he (Deyda Hydara) is here with us today to celebrate this day but God has decided and we take it in good faith,” he expressed his wishes.
Baba Hydara bemoaned the callous murder of his late father, Deyda Hydara, as he dilated on the just submitted report of the Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) to President Adama Barrow. He said everyone is watching keenly the government whitepaper with the believed that all perpetrators will dance to their own tunes. According to him, perpetrators who committed gross human rights abuses cannot be left idling in the streets, noting that if Gambia is to prove itself as a new found democracy, perpetrators who committed crimes has to face the full force of the law.
“We are pleading to the government to make sure that things are done rightly. Government must ensure that victims are satisfied with the whitepaper,” Baba Hydara submitted.
He finally called on the teeming Gambian journalists to drop their egos and sentiments and study the ways that veteran journalists were doing their job, adding that many practicing journalists who termed themselves as big journalists should take their times and follow the footsteps of the veterans.