Interim report on Deyda's murder

Tuesday, May 25, 2005

Deyda Hydara, age 58, managing editor and co-proprietor of The Point Newspaper, was shot dead by an unknown assailant or assailants between the hours of 22:00 hours and 00.00 hours on Thursday night 16th December, 2004 while driving a Mercedes Benz vehicle along the Sankung Sillah Road. On board the vehicle at the time of the incident were Ida Jagne Joof and Nyangsarang Jobe, both of whom sustained injuries suspected to have resulted from gun shots.

In the course of the investigation by the Gambia Police Force a couple of suspects were arrested, detained, questioned and later released without being charged and statements were obtained from dozen other individuals. Since the investigation by the Gambia Police Force provided no substantive leads, the Office of the President gave directives for the investigation to be transferred to the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

On the receipt of the directives on February 8, 2005, the Director General, NIA, immediately constituted a team of investigators to vigorously pursue the investigation, exhorting them to do their utmost and not leave any stone unturned in their endeavour to search for, identify and apprehend the attacker(s) of late Deyda Hydara and the two members of his staff.

The NIA investigation included interviews and questioning of a number of people including police personnel, journalists, family members and friends of the victims, employees of The Point newspaper, and examination of newspapers and other documents, such as telephone print-outs, bank accounts and contract documents,

While the only two eye-witnesses, Miss Jobe and Mrs Jagne-Joof were admitted at the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital the police were denied access to only to members of family and media. The two ladies were shortly afterwards whisked off to Dakar, Senegal, for treatment.

Eventually, The Gambia police investigation team succeeded in making arrangements with the media fraternity and the Senegalese authorities, through the Senegalese High Commission in The Gambia, to interview them in hospital in Dakar. The subsequent interview could not be properly conducted due to the presence of Senegalese security personnel, journalists and interpreters.

Given the importance of interviewing the two eye-witnesses under conditions that would allow them to provide information freely, a formally request to facilitate such an interview has been addressed to the relevant senegalese authorities, through the High commission in The Gambia, and faxed to the journalist federation headquarters in Dakar and copied to The Gambia Press Union (GPU).

The NIA investigation team believes it is imperative for the two eye-witnesses to be interviewed. This would assist the investigators in following up certain leads relating to late Deyda Hydara’s personal relationships and interactions. The investigation team believes also that it is incumbent on any member of the public with relevant information to come forward and assist the investigators to bring those responsible for the death of Deyda Hydara to justice.

The investigation continues and the numbers 9966550 and 7779595 remains open to the public.