The knowledge that I have of this incident is rather limited and I was able to get this information at the very last minute.
Personally, when I looked at the situation, it looked more like there was a plan that was never executed. I was informed about this whole thing by Col. Ndure Cham, whom I’ve known through the services, because I was serving, that he had more like a desire than a plan to overthrow - to change the government.
The change of government he explained to me that he wanted to do was more like just changing the leadership, because he said to me that he wanted to leave everything as it is: the political parties, the people in the opposition, and he even said the APRC should be allowed to continue as a political party and the constitution will not be suspended and there will be no commissions of enquiry and life would just go on.
I told him what means do you have or plan to do this. He gave me the assurance that the whole military was behind him. And I said if the whole military was behind him, Tamsir Jasseh certainly cannot stop you.
And then later on he mentioned about stopping communication - how he can go about stopping communication during the act. And one of the major things he mentioned to me that I had put some significance to was when he one day he said to me that if they should do this they have to cut off communication and they have to cut the fibre optic. And I said to him no, no - if you do that, you are destroying the country; you are not helping. I am sure everybody knows that this thing has switches. Instead of cutting this whole thing, the army is behind you, switch them off. Instead of cutting the fibre optic cables - because I know these cables are very expensive and would take a long time before you can restore telecommunication services. And he went about his way and until the very day when he called and he said they are going to do it. He called me and told me that they are going to do it at 3 o’clock.
And two, three hours later, he called me and said you know what: ‘we are abandoning this thing and that we are not going to get started because Lang Tombong Tamba has sent the message to Mauritania.’ So I told him well that is the best thing you can do. You have not even started it; no one is hurt, nothing is destroyed, so may be that is less of a problem than if you have tried to force your way through. ‘So what are you going to do now?’ I asked him. So he said ‘I don’t know’. So he went away.
Then I was in my house with my wife and children and then he called again and said that someone had informed him that he was to be arrested and that he was on the run.
And at that point I begin to realise the seriousness of the situation. Then I discussed it with my wife. I said ‘this is what has been happening’. Then my wife was very concerned and said ‘you better go and speak to the American Ambassador as a US citizen, which I did. And when I told him [the US Ambassador] about this he said ‘go home and if the authorities ask you - if you are questioned - cooperate with them; tell them what you know’. And I parked up and I came here and I told them what I know.
Here right now, regret, sorrow, is what I feel.
This was on Wednesday evening between 5.30 and 6.00. It was Mr Ndure Cham that I transported to Kujubeh, which later on I found out, was actually in Senegal and I came back. I did it because this is the way out for both of us. When we got there I said no; I am coming to face the consequence, and I came back.
What he told me was we have the border problem between The Gambia and Senegal. It got to a such point that it’s affecting both countries economically and so many other ways. And I remember distinctly telling him that the cost of cooking gas has gone up in both countries so much so that business people in restaurants don’t even make a profit now, they spent all their money on cooking gas.
And he said to me ‘I want to send a message to the Senegalese Embassy that security service in the Gambia and Senegal should continue working smoothly together and let the politicians sort out their political issues because at these borders, the security personnel that stand there, if this personnel facilitate movement, there will be smooth cooperation.’ And he wanted me to go to the Senegalese Ambassador and informally just discuss with him, and I asked him how come you can do that. I hope to say that is in line with government policy but I just wanted him to know this. So I went. It took me a while before I was able to finally go there and get an appointment. I went in gave my name and my information, and it was about three or four days later they called me and said ‘yes, you have requested meeting with the Ambassador, you can come’, and I went and greeted the Ambassador. Before I started to tell him, he said, ‘Let me call a witness’. So he called somebody else who came in and sat down and I said to him Ndure Cham has asked me to come and informally and personally explain to you what is happening at the border.
The security services of both countries should work together smoothly and the Ambassador himself had at first expressed surprise as to why I would be the one to convey such message and told him Ndure Cham would find a way of officiating this, he said. But for now, this is what he has asked me to do, and I would like you to understand that he is seeking a cooperation between the two securities, and the politicians are to take care of their problem and that situation in The Gambia and Senegal is becoming dangerous, in his point of view. So this was his concern. And the Ambassador listened to me surprisingly. Then he just elaborated on the need for close relationship - just like you would talk to a Senegalese neighbour- that it is true the two countries are so close together. Just on that general term. He spoke generally, and then he said ‘Okay, I will contact you’. I left my number [Mobile phone] there - because you leave your number there when you go there.
It was after a while - about four or five days later that I received a call from someone in Senegal who identified himself as Pap Seck and said ‘my superior gave me your name and number. So I just call to say that I will call you back’. And then I told Ndure Cham that instead of the ambassador calling me it was this man, Pap Seck, who is calling me from Senegal. So gave Ndure Cham that information and the said Pap Seck might be in the military intelligence in Senegal. It was Mr Cham who gave me the information that Pap Seck would give him money. He requested the money. But I asked him ‘Why is that you want money from anybody’, and he said, ‘No military is going to be in the government. It will be purely civilian government and that if those senior officers are paid money, it will be some kind of compensation not to request for position in the government because the government was supposed to continue as it is - with civilians. He said if I have a million dollars, but to me that was just like daydreaming. Who is going to give him a million dollar? For I have always expressed to him that my interest is business. He said, ‘oh! But you are good in law enforcement and the IGP, Sonko, is a very good soldier whom I will really like to promote and transfer back into the army because most of the senior people in the Army are gone.
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