Seven years ago, today, we lost a prominent member of our family in the person of Deyda Hydara, the founding editor and co-publisher of The Point, a leading Gambian independent newspaper in a gruesome attack.
Seven solid years on, the killers of this illustrious son of The Gambia are yet to be brought to book.
As we count days, months and years, justice for callously murdered Deyda seems to be a far away aspiration.
For the government of The Gambia whose mandate it is to protect the lives and properties in the country seems to be indifferent to our cries, that of his family, Gambians and the world that care for justice.
The Gambia government’s inept investigation into the killing of Deyda is indeed intolerable, but matters are being compounded by the unacceptable remarks of our Gambian president Yahya Jammeh.
The Gambia government has denied any responsibility in the killing of Deyda, but its response to calls for proper investigation into the unlawful killing of Deyda has so far been unimpressive.
In fact our Gambian president has now make it a habit to make unacceptable comments anytime the issue of Deyda Hydara is mentioned.
The latest of this unacceptable stands of our president on this very important issue came recently during an interview with BBC.
“Why Deyda is so special,” he responded to a question as to whether he feels sorry for the Hydara family.
Our president in fact went on to say many people died in this country. “Is Deyda better than them? He asked further.
And of course in the rush to press, we could not adequately give this question a more fitting response.
We have therefore decided to reproduce some tributes published in various newspapers in the wake of Deyda’s death.
It is this paper’s hope that these questions will be diligently answered by The Gambia Press Union (GPU) tomorrow and not later, when we gather at TANGO to mark his 7th year anniversary.