Madiky Another Forgotten Detainee

 

Madikay Faal has since February this year joined a list of forgotten illegal Gambian detainees. The dismissed former National Intelligence Agency officer was arrested on February 16th, 2016. Like most illegal detainees, Madikay has neither been charged, nor appeared before the court, which violates his constitutional rights. He remained detained at the NIA cells in Banjul until recently when he was moved to Mile II Central Prisons.

He has been denied access to family and lawyers.

Mr. Fall had previous brush with the law culminating in his conviction. He served nine months and released. However, Faal’s current arrest and subsequent detention which resulted after he had reported to the NIA headquarters in Banjul, left his desperate family searching for answers. The family doesn’t understand why Madikay was invited to the NIA only to remain in detention yet no one explains the reasons for holding a family man. As a former NIA officer, Madikay knew any could have happened to him once he landed at the agency. It was for this reason that he had alerted some friends and family members before leaving for Banjul.

After hours of not seeing or hearing from him, Madikay’s wife walked to the agency’s office demanding to know the whereabouts of her husband. At first she was told her husband was held at the NIA but spy agents blinked when Mrs. Faal insisted that her husband had responded to NIA’s phone invitation and that he had not returned or reached by phone. It was then that secret agents on duty confirmed Madikay’s detention at the NIA.

Madikay Faal is an ex-soldier of original Gambia National Army who joined the NIA in 1995. Faal was detained for three months and dismissed from the NIA. He was released only after his family paid over two hundred thousand Dalasis.

Gambian prisons and detention centers are filled with many forgotten detainees like Madikay.

Ends