Gambia’s military Public Relations Officer, Major Lamin K. Sanyang has told forGambia News that his institution will not hide anything from the public if any high-profile arrests are made, especially of those party to twenty-two years of excesses in The Gambia. Sanyang was speaking from the Gambia in an exclusive interview with forGambia News on Thursday.
“They said our personnel were involved in the arrests and it came as a shock to us because if something of that nature is to happen involving our personnel and we don’t know about it, then it means something is wrong somewhere. So, either someone is not doing his job or I don’t know what they were after. But we knew for a fact that the military police they alluded to were not involved in any arrests of any personnel, more so the Junglers around Basse,” Sanyang clarified.
It was like, “I’m involved in something. And I’m not even there. Now even if we arrest them, I don’t think we would go about hiding that kind of [in audible] as to whatever we’re involved in. The taxpayers are the reason why we’re here. The constitution categorically spelt it out that there shall be an armed force made up of the army, the navy, and the airforce. And then the maintenance and equipping of that armed forces rests on the hands of the Gambian people. So, whatever we do, we owe it to the Gambian people to tell them what we are involved in, more so the arrests of this nature,” Mr. Sanyang continued.
He did not hesitate to add, “So, if it happens and we arrest people that we have in our custody [inaudible] our existence itself is as a result of the wishes of the Gambian people. It is the wishes and desires of the Gambian people to have an armed forces. So, whatever we’re engaged in, more so the arrest of high-profile people or whatever activity we may be involved in, there is no cause for us to even hide it from the public, more so these high-profile people. So, if were to arrest them, we owe it to the Gambian people to tell them.”
“ So, there is no such thing like secrecy about the way we work. We have confidentiality issues here and there. But secrecy is not part of our vocabulary and the way we operate. So even in the past, we had some of these “Junglars” we arrested. Some of them came before the TRRC to testify. When we arrested them, we did inform the public that we have them in our custody and then we did what we had to [in audible]. And when we were done, we submitted their files to the Attorney General’s Chambers for legal advice. If anyone of them is arrested, including those at large, their treatment would not be different from the previous ones we arrested,” Sanyang concluded.
