The point of the advocacy is still the same, but the center of attention seems to have shifted a little. Instead of the unrelenting call on ‘government’ to release journalist Manneh, the person of president Jammeh is being demanded to clarify how he knows that journalist Manneh is dead when his government had flatly denied knowledge of his whereabouts.
Ebrima Manneh, a senior reporter of pro-government Daily Observer has been reportedly picked up at his workplace in broad day light by two people, who claimed to be agents of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
This was on July 7, 2006. Yesterday - July 7, 2011, the Journalist clocked five years and a day in the unknown. Or say, as far as his colleagues and family are concerned.
His parents say they have searched everywhere within their reach and knocked at the doors of every potential savior, including The Gambia’s vice president. But they could not find a trace of their beloved son.
Soaked to their throat, the aged parents are hoping against hope for God’s intervention as that seems to be the only thing they know of, to hold on
Although, Ebrima Manneh’s aged parents may not have known much, his colleagues are neither completely blind nor deaf about the circumstances surrounding the journalist’s disappearance. Those that have fled the country, some for fear of suffering a similar fate or worse, are telling it all.
“I vividly remember April 11, 2000, in the aftermath of the April 10, 2000 bloody student massacre in which journalist Omar Barrow was also killed,” Lamin Jatta, a former Daily Observer staff, now living in U.S recounts.
“Journalist Chief Manneh and I went out as roving reporters for the Daily Observer to gather more news from the still unfolding situation as the killings continued in the provinces.
Mr Jatta went on: “Chief was then the head of the crime desk and I was head of education. The students in the provincial areas were outraged at the slaughter of their comrades in the urban areas the previous day.
“They gallantly staged solidarity riots the second day that shamefully also led to the killing and maiming of scores of more students by the security forces. We then went to the police headquarters in Banjul thinking that it would be the ground zero of the ugly events of those two days.
“We got valuable evidence when we reached the Serious Crime Unit. There we found scores of students detained from the demonstrations. The police did not like our presence around that vicinity.
“Chief, what the hell are you guys doing here?”, one of the senior officers screamed at us. They berated and herded us to one of the offices and forced us to sit side by side and informed us that we were under arrest.
“After detaining us for about half an hour, one of the officers came in to talk down on us, “Journalist” – about how bad we were and hated in our own country. And then told us to leave the premises forthwith and warned us to be careful with how we conducted our work.
He continued: “While at the headquarters, we bumped into our colleagues Alieu Badara and Mansaray. We caught up with Alieu Badara again on our way back to the Daily Observer at around July 22 Square in Banjul and he had a grim face. “I’m surprised to see you here, I saw they detained you and I was rushing back to the office to write the story.” Chief, Mansaray, and I laughed it off.”
Six years later, Chief Manneh disappeared. Lamin is bitter about it. “It is with a heavy heart and utter sense of despair that I remember a young man whose warmness and a rare sense of humor captivated everyone who had the privilege of meeting him,” he said.
“Chief was an ambitious hardworking young man with extra ordinary talents. We were both freelance reporters for the Daily Observer and were later promoted to staff reporter positions on the same day.
“Chief was very sociable. We used to played soccer tournaments, attend staff naming ceremonies, picnics, and went out and about together scouting for news.”
Mr Jatta’s is not attributing his colleague’s disappearance to April 10 incident. Rather, he seems to share the same view as that of a former Daily Observer reporter whose testimony at the ECOWAS faulted Gambia government for Chief Manneh’s disappearance.
According to the testimony, journalist Manneh’s arrest is in connection with a BBC report he tried to reproduce. The story is believed to be critical of President Yahya Jammeh.
Even the controversial former managing director of Daily Observer, Dida Halake, who fled the country was quoted as saying: “… I too hope Chief Ebrima Manneh will be re-united with his family, inshallah. Chief was an excellent writer and practitioner of ethical journalism whom I had the opportunity to praise in a letter to the editor in the pages of the Daily Observer.
“Of course I knew him personally, though he did not work under my MD-ship. I did sit on the raised cement veranda of Fatoto Police station during my “Kotu to Koina” journey this year – and the profound thought that Chief may have sat for days on the same cement veranda did indeed cross my mind.”
Yet the government of The Gambia flatly denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of Chief Manneh. Its seeming inept investigation and lackluster approach to the saga leaves much to be desired.
When Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) filed a suit at the ECOWAS court of justice in Abuja, Nigeria, calling on the government of The Gambia to release journalist Manneh with immediate effect, the government never attended any of the court proceedings.
Even more disappointing is Gambia government’s failure to respect the judgment of the sub-regional court, which orders it to pay a compensation of US$1000 and to release him with immediate effect.
Two years on, the government is yet to neither release Manneh nor pay the compensation to his family.
Gambian President Yahya Jammeh is known for his verbal attacks on the media. He once described them as illegitimate sons of Africa and threatened to cut off heads. He had ridiculed assassinated journalist, Deyda Hydara and insinuated that Chief Manneh might have perished on a ‘back way’ journey to Europe.
When he met the top brass of Gambia media for the first time in March this year, he referred to Chief Ebrima Manneh as dead. With this allusion, he owes the Manneh family an explanation, according to media rights campaigners.
“Gambian President Yahya Jammeh must clarify his March 16 comments, suggesting that detained journalist “Chief” Ebrima Manneh has died, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
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