Captain Bubacar Bah has confessed to torturing Omar Jallow, former Agriculture minister in the Jawara government, during his testimony yesterday to the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission.

Captain Bah, a serving member of The Gambia’s army, told the commission that he was acting under orders when he beat up Omar Jallow, otherwise known as O.J, leaving him with a broken eye socket.   

The event happened in 1995 after the PPP government was overthrown by a group of mutinous soldiers led by Lt Yahya Jammeh and the former ministers were arrested and detained at the Fajara Barracks. 

O.J during his testimony to the Commission last month name-checked Captain Bubacar Bah as the soldier who “tortured and broke his eye socket” and called him “a wicked and vicious man.”   

Captain Bah admitted that he tortured O.J but added that he was misled by the late Captain Almamo Manneh, his superior and mentor, who told him O.J was planning to bring in mercenaries to overthrow the AFPRC Junta.

“I was really angry why this guy (O.J) should think like that. He has been in government for so long. These people (AFPRC) just came in, we are transitioning. So as I came close to him, I punched him on the stomach and then he bend down and I started beating him with my hands.  

“I was not satisfied with hitting and kicking him with my hands and my feet. Then when I looked around, I saw these truncheons that were being used by the gendermarie. For some reason, they were littered around. I reached out for a good one and I hit him mercilessly on almost all parts of his body, his head especially. And then he fell down. I kicked him also and I was hitting him. So, this lasted for a while. I was particularly concentrating on him because of what I was told about him. So I was hitting him, I was beating him.”

Captain Bah said he regretted his actions and would apologise to O.J in person for the harm and pain he caused him. He said he was embarrassed of his action and promised not to repeat such “ungodly act.”

“I want to say that I’m sorry to the people of the country. I want to say that I’m sorry to uncle O.J. I want to say that to everybody in this country whether they are Gambians or non-Gambians.”

He said he was young and immature at the time he carried out the inhumane and degrading act adding that he was under the spell of the late Captain Almamo Manneh, his mentor and guardian.

“Because of my age and my level of maturity, I was really very gullible and I believed in him (Captain Almamo). And then that is what led me to join in torturing uncle OJ.”

Captain Bubacar Bah is the first perpetrator of human rights abuses, during the Jammeh era, to confess his crimes to the Commission.