The Gambian police rush to bury the remains of a 29 year old GAF active duty soldier who allegedly committed suicide without consulting his family raises eye brows in many corners. One Matarr Ceesay a native of Kombo Brikama who was an active serving army officer since 2006 allegedly committed suicide before setting himself ablaze (Daily Observer Dec 3rd, 2013).
The late Matarr Ceesay was a lance corporal and was attached to the Farafenni Army Barracks. He has reportedly served in a UN peace keeping mission in Darfur. His remains were allegedly found near Basore village outside of Brikama early Friday morning November 29th, 2013.
The circumstances surrounding the young man’s death are raising eye brows because the story as reported by the pro government newspaper the daily Observer raises more questions than answers. The bizarre story of the young soldier committing suicide and setting himself ablaze sounds incredibly ridiculous and defies any common sense or intelligent reasoning. First, how do someone commit suicide and then set themselves ablaze?
Second, where and when did the Gambia police force personnel have the authority to bury a dead body regardless of the gruesome state of the decease’s body? Why was the body not transported to the hospital’s mortuary and investigations mounted before discarding the body? Another question many people are asking is why was the family not consulted before the dead body was buried? Who authorizes the police to bury the body and was any forensic evidence recovered at the scene of the alleged suicide? How did the police discover the body of the young man and how long did it take them to bury the body? Why was there no press conference to answer questions?
These questions common sense citizens are asking makes this case even more suspicious and potentially it looks more like a foul play than an unfortunate circumstance of a young man taking his life. Readers may recalled that the Jammeh administration has allegedly employed new tactic of getting rid of perceived enemies by associating their dead with accident. Former Director of the National Intelligence and his fellow captives Daba Marenah who were alleged to have taken part in a failed coup were summarily executed while the government mount a PR campaign staging their escape while being transported to Janjabureh central Prison. These prisoners were in chains and until today no one have ever heard from them.
Sergeant Elo Jallow another young soldier who was a body guard to the first lady Zainab Jammeh was also allegedly killed in a staged automobile accident in the middle of the night. No broken bones or apparent injuries were found on his body. He was rushed to his native village for immediate burial and no investigations were ever conducted on his alleged accident. President Jammeh reportedly gave Sergeant Jallow’s family D70,000 as compensation.
Many other mysterious deaths of top security officials and or prisoners such as Baba Jobe has been alleged against the Jammeh regime. Many critics accused the regime of adopting new tactics in covering their crimes against citizens.
One thing is abundantly clear and consistent in all these alleged crimes, the lives of Gambian citizens and the respect and dignity of their families seem valueless to the administration. If the lives of individual citizens was valued by this administration then due respect and privacy must have been accorded to the families to decide the final resting places of their love ones. Every passing day, Gambians are reminded of the lawlessness and total disregard for the lives of its citizens. At the very least any professional police force would mount investigations of a citizen’s mysterious death before burying the decease. Gambia seems to lack any more common sense professionals serving in its public offices.
Gainako has dispatched our sources to gather more information on the circumstances surrounding the mysterious death of this young army officer and we will bring you more details on our findings. Our thoughts and prayers goes to the family of the young man. May his soul rest in eternal peace. Amin!