By Yunus S Saliu
Eyewitnesses have frowned on the police for releasing a non-Gambian who had slapped and given blows to one of the Gambia Armed Forces officers stationed at the premises of the Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS) located at the MDI Road, Kanifing.
The incident which took place on Monday afternoon between the hours of 3 and 4 pm as explained by these Eyewitnesses occurred at the entrance gate to the premises of the GRTS whereby both staff and non-staff going to the premises are subject to a brief identification and clearance from the Soldiers at the gate.
According to the narration of these eyewitnesses who were sitting across the road and directly opposite the television station’s building when this ugly incident happened saw a white man who they described to be an Egyptian citizen with a motorbike at the GRTS gate exchanging words with the soldier man and within a twinkle of an eye the man (described to an Egyptian) hit the soldier with blow repeatedly.
“We were surprised and rushed down to intervene but the other soldiers there calm down the situation. After that this white man left his motorbike with intention of attacking him further before an army Major surfaced at the scene to talk to them and took the man and the Soldier to Kanifing Police Station and along with three other people as witnesses,” eyewitnesses explained what they witnessed.
On Tuesday, it was a surprise to some of the Eyewitnesses who had witnessed the incident on Monday to see the culprit come back to the same soldier who was still on duty at the GRTS to apologize.
“This white man just comes here this afternoon on his motorbike with his friends in two vehicles to apologize to the soldier. But we are very disappointed to see this man who had attacked a Gambia Army on duty been released by police in less than 24 hours just like that,” one of the Eyewitnesses said.
These Eyewitnesses all condemned the act and expressed dismay over the issue saying “this can only happen in The Gambia, not in other countries.”
“If non-Gambians don’t respect our soldiers in our country, where are we I have traveled especially to different parts of Europe and other places but I have not seen a civilian directly beating, slapping, and giving an officer on duty a blow either as a citizen on a non-citizen,” one of the eyewitnesses who had accompanied them to police station expressed.