Leadership (Abuja)
Emmanuel Iffer
16 August 2008
Reports have indicated that a Nigerian publisher and editor of Today, a Banjul-based newspaper, Abdulhamid Adiamoh, has continued to have frictions with the Gambian securities, as he was again arrested and detained for a night at the Serious Crime Unit of the Gambian Police Force in the capital city of the country.
The Nigerian publisher was earlier arrested in July and accused by the Police of "publishing with seditious intentions".
According to agency report, sources said that Adiamoh, who has been a resident in the Gambia for the past 10 years, was interrogated over his status as a foreigner in the country before being released on bail the following day.
The report quoted sources as saying that Adiamoh's release followed the intervention of the Gambian Press Union (GPU). Since his release, he has been reporting regularly to the Police.
According to the sources, Adiamoh's house was searched and his residence permit confiscated by plain-clothes Police officers who stormed his house on the day of his arrest.
The Police said the re-arrest and subsequent detention of the journalist was part of their investigation into his ongoing case.
On 21 July, Adiamoh was charged by the Police for allegedly publishing an article with "seditious intentions". He and one of his reporters, Pa Bajika, were arrested and detained on 17 July over a story and photograph that the "Today" newspaper published about some Gambian school children who often abandoned school and dealt in metal scraps.
After this first arrest, the editor was granted bail in the sum of 20,000 Gambian dalasi (approx. US$952) and one surety, and was required to report to the Police twice a week.
But the Gambia Press Union (GPU), president, Ndey Tapha Sosseh, who confirmed the second arrest of the Nigerian- born journalist, said that he was being harassed and intimidated.
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