Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana has said that former President of Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, ordered the illegal execution over fifty persons, including nine Nigerians in 2005.
In a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday, Falana said that on July 21, 2005, the Gambian Navy seized a boat conveying 58 immigrants, including 9 Nigerians, 40 Ghanaians, 3 Senegalese, 3 Sierra Leoneans and 2 Togolese sailing towards a fishing vessel anchored on the high sea to stowaway to Europe.
The respect civil rights lawyer further revealed that apart from two Ghanaian nationals who were released to a Ghanaian Government Delegation, another Ghanaian escaped from the custody of the Navy.
According to Falana, the remaining 55 immigrants were illegally executed on the orders of the “brutal regime of Mr. Yayah Jameh, former President of Gambia”.
He disclosed that his firm was able to establish the identity of one of the Nigerians said to have been executed.
”In the investigation conducted by our law firm into the killings it has been established that the 9 Nigerians involved were travelling with their passports. However, the Nigerian Community in Senegal confirmed the identity of one of the massacred Nigerian immigrants. The details are:-
“Name: Omozemoje Paul Enagameh
Passport No: A1548206
Place of Birth: Lagos
Date of Birth: 9th December 1976”
While thanking the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama for providing vital information in the investigation, Mr Falana on behalf of his firm, stressed that the family members of the 9 Nigerians that were “illegally executed” have an opportunity to seek redress in the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission currently sitting in Banjul, the Gambia.
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