GAMBIA UPDATES: ARRESTED LASANA DRAMMEH STILL MISSING If Gambians thought by going on with their businesses or locking themselves up in their houses they would be saved from indiscriminate and wholesale arrests, they must have been living in a dreamland. Many Gambians, ordinary and prominent alike, are going to suffer the consequences of the failed coup attempt of 29/30 December 2014. It is not about being innocent or not. The collective punishment will ruin many lives and livelihoods. At the time of composing this update, more people are getting arrested and we will not give a number since the crackdown is just beginning. What we can confirm for now is that a shopkeeper by the name Lasana Drammeh is among those picked up by unidentified security personnel. He was arrested around 2pm GMT on New Years Day while performing ablution at his shop to pray. Lasana runs a business owned by his biological mother. He frequently goes to Senegal to buy “ganyilas” (traditional West African textile) and resell them in his Latrikunda shop at the Bundung taxi garage in Latrkunda. He is a native of Kombo Mandinaring and lives with his mother in Dippa Kunda Manjai. NTI XANNEN spent the last 24 hours trying to locate Lasana Drammeh but to no avail. We would like to remind those who picked up Lasana Drammeh and the others that the UN Security Council did call on the Gambian authorities to respect rights of citizens. The world is watching carefully. We will keep monitoring the developments. IMPORTANT NOTE FOR SONINKARA/SARANXULLIRAH: To my Sarahulleh kinsmen and women who like hiding behind the lazy excuse of “oraxen ta polotigi di”(we are not into politics), wake up from the slumber. You don’t have to be into politics for you to get arrested, persecuted, prosecuted or lose your money, compounds, cars and families against your will. Those who were arrested in that Angola mosque raid were not doing politics. So sitting down and saying “amake bagin da” will not protect you as your close relative could be affected and you will be forced to give your “dalla” and “euronu” to some useless people who will take advantage of the “xaxan taaxu” and “amakebagga” attitudes to enjoy your “nabureh” for free. If they are asked for money for a good cause they would say “ xalisin tin maxa (I have no money) but they will automatically give the security officers whatever amount those people extort from them. This injustice and corruption can only stop when we modify our mentality. The other day it was our people in Angola who were arrested and beaten. These days it Lasana Drammeh and others in The Gambia. Tomorrow it could be a family member of some of you reading this post. We are all in it together. The Angola police did not differentiate between “komme, garanke, soninke, tagge, badugula, manda, malinke, etc” when arresting our people in that Luanda mosque. They picked up everyone they got. Let us start respecting, loving and supporting each other without the stagnant mentality of segregation that is arresting our development and making it difficult for us to find progressive solutions to the myriad of problems affecting our Soninkara/Saranxullirah communities at home and abroad. Xa Nawari.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 11:33:58 +0000
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