Freedom Newspaper (Raleigh, North Carolina)
Ndeneh Joof
10 April 2008
The youths in Fajikunda and its satellite areas could not enjoyed the festive weekend last week as they were rounded up in their neighborhoods by some self-styled boys claiming to be personnel of the National Drug Enforcement Agency(NDEA), the Freedom Newspaper has learnt.
According to reliable sources, some personnel from NDEA alongside some so-called officers at the weekend launched an aggressive operation in Fajikunda and Tabokoto , harassing innocent people whom they found resting and drinking "attaya" with their friends. Our sources added that, these 'officers', did not only subject the unsuspecting youths to inhuman treatments but also stripped of their hard-earned monies.
Speaking to our reporter, Madam Sarjo Badjie, a mother of three boys and a resident of Fajikunda said that four men posing to be Drug Squad personnel came to her children's house when they were playing music and drinking 'attaya' and disgraced them.
The visibly-looking despondent Madam Badjie said that the officers forcefully grabbed the boys and insisted that the boys must go with them to the Serrekunda Police station because they suspect them of possessing drugs. "But these boys were not found with anything , how can they take them to the police station ? This is a gross human right violation," she fumed, adding : " In fact when i asked them to produce their identification cards , apparently, only one of them showed up his Drug Squad ID card while the others refused to show up their ID cards. This alone explains that some of them were faked officers and they were only interested in extorting money from people."
Meanwhile ,other concerned residents of the area have also voiced out their total disenchantment in the way and manner in which these 'officers' conducted their operations. They lamented that the relevant authorities should take immediate action against these unscrupulous people who are hellbent on defrauding the civilian populace.
"Their own job seems to be quite different from normal police duty because even when they found you smoking cigarettes, they will search you and ask you to stand and wait, only to be told later to give them something thing so that they let you go," the middle-man told our reporter, referring to some of these 'officers' .
It could be recalled that the PIU personnel sometime last year conducted a similar raid at London Corner which claimed the life of one Sheriff Minteh. The incident nearly spark a civil strife as angry youths were poised to burn down the moribund Serrekunda Police Station in protest to the gruesome murder of their of their compatriot. In the wake of that development, the police were quick to issue a press release distancing themselves from the killing of the 19 year old boy. Sadly enough few days later, the suspect was brought to book contradicting their statement. Dodou Janneh, has been standing trial for the murder and the case has been marred by consistence absence of the three lawyers of the accused.Today this one is sick, tomorrow the other is sick or all of them absent. This came at the time when President Jammeh had urged the judiciary to expedite cases in court but it has only been the opposite in Sheriff Minteh's case.
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