Lamin Badgie told the Truth Commission on Tuesday that the former Justice Minister Lamin Jobarteh was present at the Brikama Firing Range the day the 9 death row inmates were secretly executed. Jobarteh, Lamin said, was at the range with Sulayman Badgie and some senior Government officials.Badgie is the fifth jungler to testify before the Truth Commission since its start on January 7, 2019.
Lamin Badgie is a member of former President Yahya Jammeh’s hit-squad, an elite paramilitary group under the National Republic Guards.
Also call The Patrol Team, the group is loosely controlled with their boss Sulayman Badgie directly answering to Yahya Jammeh. Badgie famously call the Saul was the commander of the State Guards, soldiers tasked with the responsibility of protecting the President.
Lamin started his carrier as a paramilitary officer and was later recruited as a Jungler. But regardless of his registration as a member of the group, he claimed he was never involved in any of their operations.
Nevertheless, any time there was an operations, the Junglers would organized a barbeque. The meat, according to Lamin, would be provided by former President Jammeh. And they believe they are infested with spiritual water meant to indoctrinate the killers.
Though he would not be involved in the killing, he would be called for barbecuing. Lamin was the “pitmaster” who would roast the meat for the Junglers.
But that was to change. In 2012, Gambia’s self-style revolutionary Jammeh decided to kill 9 death row inmates. In Lamin’s understanding, this was a sacrifice to Jammeh’s Gods, whatever or whoever they are.
In that operations, Lamin would be called. Even though he claimed he did not touch anyone, he did bought the killers food and also at some point collected the shoes of the victims from the vehicles to their grave which was an old well.
“I have found Solo Bojang standing over the dead bodies and he was reciting something,” said Lamin. This something, he would not know.
“I think it was a sacrifice because when they are killing them, they did not pray for them. Why would they pray for them after they were killed? And this exercise happened on a Thursday but when the announcement was being made, they said it was on a Sunday… We all know Thursdays are important days on Muslim calendar for giving out charity.”
Later, Lamin said, he would learn that the inmates had actually been killed on the way to the firing range in Brikama by strangulation.
He said a former Justice Minister Lamin Jobarteh was at the range and among the people who were to confirm that the victims had died.
Jobarteh, a one-time intelligent officer under Jammeh, was one of the vocal defenders of what many considers an illegal execution.
According to Lamin Badgie, this was his only crime. He never killed or tortured anyone. Lamin was arrested and detained for several months after the fall of former President Jammeh. Lamin said the Jungler never trusted him, perhaps because he was not a soldier. They nearly involved him in one of their operations but later changed their mind at the last hour in Brikama.
Nfansu Nyabally, according to him, is the good guy who always put him in the loop and often give him some money.
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