Gambia’s largest opposition party, the United Democratic Party (UDP), has insisted that the Gambian government is responsible for the missing UDP leader Kanyiba Kanyi.
Reacting to claims by President Yahya Jammeh that his government is not responsible for the missing UDP official, the party's leader, Ousainou Darboe, told PANA here Wednesday that plain cloth security personnel, who identified themselves as National Intelligence Agency operatives, were responsible for the arrest and subsequent detention of Kanyi from his Bonto village on 18 September 2006.
He said the UDP had refrained from making a public statement on the issue because it was before the court.
“It will be irresponsible to do so because the matter is before the court and it is a matter of (regret) that the President, who should be the pacesetter in observing basic rules, has used the occasion of the celebration of a military ov erthrow of a democratically-elected government to make unsavory remarks on Kanyiba and his tribe,” Darboe said.
He explained that Kanyi was arrested along with his brother, Wandifa Kanyi, by the NIA, and the two brothers were taken to the premises of the NIA.
Darboe said that Wandifa was released from the custody of the NIA on 19 September 2006, while Kanyiba was not.
He said the UDP official was arrested and detained to keep him out of circulation during the 2006 presidential election campaign, because he (Kanyi) was a formidable youth mobilizer.
The UDP leader also said former Interior Minister Babucarr Jatta had accepted responsibility for ordering the arrest of Kanyiba and Ousman Jatta.
PANA
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