Mr President Yahya Jammeh this is not the first time I have written to you asking you to use your conscience and release prisoners of conscience and perhaps it won’t be the last as long as you are in power and I’m alive. We are in the 3rd week of the Ramadan, a month of forgiveness and spiritual cleansing and much more than abstaining from eating and drinking and other prohibited acts like sex or smoking. Ramadan is a time to purify the soul, refocus attention on Allah, and practice self-discipline and sacrifice; it is also a moment for mending differences between people and their neighbours and communities.
I would like to seize this unique opportune moment to call on you, Mr President to release all political prisoners that are currently languishing in your so-called 5 star hotel, Mile II central prison. In July 2015 when you announced and pardoned some political prisoners from prison, albeit under forced conditions to support you, most people thank you for a gesture they described as magnanimous gesture.
However, the families of Alhagie Mamut Ceesay and Ebou Jobe, the two missing Gambian born US citizens, are still asking for their whereabouts who are said to have been abducted in the Gambia since June 2013 by men believed to be state security agents. Mr President, no matter what Ebou and Alhagie’s crimes may be, if any, to keep them incommunicado for this long without charge or trial is un-Islamic and gross violation of their human rights.
Ebou and Alhagie are from families just like everyone else and they have families just like you do Mr President, so by detaining them without their families knowing their whereabouts, is tantamount to everyday torture to not only the detainees but to their families, friends and loved ones.
Mr President you have defended many of your actions based on the teachings of Islam and not least your unilateral execution of 9 prisoners nearly four years ago. Mr President, last year when you granted amnesty to over 200 prisoners you told people to fear Allah, repent and forgive each other and to forgive you too. Using the same message Mr President, why can’t you not fear the same Allah and use the same Islamic teachings of forgiveness and tolerance, especially in this blessed month of Ramadan to release Alhagie Mamut Ceesay and Ebou Jobe for the sake of Islam and their families.
Mr President, there are many things that are certain, however, one among those is death, we will all die eventually and Allah’s promise to us will surely come to pass Mr President. Would you want to be question Mr President, on the day of resurrection when your temporal world powers will be completely seized from you and all you will be left with are your deeds from this world. If you understand the severity of that day, Mr President, I doubt you will want Allah to ask you about what you did to Alhagie, Ebou and their respective families.
I therefore sincerely urged you, Mr President to use your conscience and of course take advantage of this blessed month of Ramadan and release Alhagie Mamut Ceesay and Ebou Jobe immediately. If you read this letter, Mr President, Shaitan may put some pride in you to say, who is this Mr Nobody urging me to release Alhagie and Ebou? However, Mr President, this Mr Nobody may as well be saving you from the wrath of Allah without you realising it, please do the right thing and release all political prisoners for your magnanimity in order for Allah to magnanimously reward you in the day of resurrection. Thank you, Mr President, I wish every Muslim a blissful and happy Ramadan.
Gambia Voices 