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Gambia News : Questionable Arrest of Young Man in Wuli Macca Masireh Village?

One Muhamadou Nanki, a native of Macca Masireh in Wuli East, was on Sunday 10 February, arrested by the personnel of the Gambia Immigration Department, for not producing an identity card upon request by Immigration Officers.

According to family members, Mr. Nanki and his friends were sitting at their village "Vous," when the officers came in a Sare Ngai Police vehicle and demanded to see their identity cards. They said Mr. Nanki and his friends told the officers they are not strangers in that village but instead bonafide citizens. They said Muhamadou was asked what was in his hand bag which they eventually searched and found nothing. They said the officers, however, said they do not trust that the young man was not a foreigner.

According to the eyewitnesses, the officers did not ask the young man to produce his identity card, they just bundled him up and took him to Sare Ngai station. They alleged that the officers re-acted by impulse. They expressed suspicion that the officers ' behavior may have been politically motivated since such arrests usually happen only after elections. They lamented that they could not understand why somebody has to be arrested in his own village for failure to produce an identity card.

The Immigration mouth piece, Superintendent Olimatou Jammeh Sonko, could not confirm the allegation as the officer in charge of Sare Ngai police station could not be reached on phone to verify the veracity of the allegation. Mrs. Jammeh Sonko, however, said that there is nothing wrong for their officers to ask for people's ID cards, even though they are in their village. She noted that every citizen is obliged to have an identity card. She asserted that their officers might have their reasons as to why they decided to arrest Mr. Nanki instead of others. She added that if Mr. Nanki had an ID card, he could have asked for the officers to give him time to produce his ID before he was whisked away. She stated that the officers would be in position to reason with him to produce the document. She pointed out that from Macca Masireh to Sare Ngai police station is very far for officers to take a single person there without a genuine reason.

However, up to today, the young man is detained in a cell, even though his relatives went to clarify to the police that he is a Gambian by birth. They maintain that the officers acted on impulse rather than common sense.