afrol News, 7 April - After a bitter altercation with the government, a Gambian police officer has reportedly gone missing. This development comes on the heels of Momodou Lamin Dampha's detention at the police headquarters in the capital Banjul.

Family sources told afrol News that the officer's troubles were exacerbated by his failure to lead another team of Gambian security to carry out yet another attempt on the life of Yaya Dampha, an exiled Gambian journalist in Senegal, for the second time.

Mr Dampha - a cousin to Momodou Lamin - on 10 March escaped attempted kidnapping by Gambian security agents in the capital Dakar. He had gone into exile shortly after he was detained alongside senior Amnesty International officials [Tania Bernath, Senior Researcher and Ayodele Ameen, Campaign Officer for West Africa] by Gambian authorities in horrendous conditions in October 2007.

Dampha's only crime - if there is any - was to lead foreign human rights researchers to two secret detention camps upcountry. The government's perceived enemies - journalists and politicians, including Ousman Rambo Jatta, the councillor of Bakau - have been secretly held in the said camps. Despite several court orders demanding the release of these people, the Gambia government refused to release the detainees.

"We understand he had been troubled by his failure to lead agents so that they could harm his cousin brother, Yaya Dampha," said a family member who begged for cover. "The fact is that we are yet to receive any information on his whereabouts."

Yaya joined other family members to express concern over the issue. "I am definitely uncomfortable, confused and concerned about this latest development," Dampha said.

"What have I done to warrant all these things is what I have not been told, after all, I am a clean citizen? I have not committed any heinous crimes."

By staff writer

© afrol News

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