Former director-general of Gambia’s Prison Service David Colley has died in his hometown, Kanilai. 

He passed away yesterday after battling long term illness. He was 65. 

Colley, who worked for over 30 years, was the longest serving director-general of the notorious Mile 2 prison. 

He was a close ally of former president Yahya Jammeh and implicated in many of the high profile victims during the Jammeh regime. 

In 2018, he was sacked following his arrest over the the death of Baba Jobe, a onetime Jammeh ally turned political opponent. 

He had run the penitentiary system nearly non-stop since 1997 under Yahya Jammeh, the longtime leader of the tiny West African state who was forced out of power last month after losing an election.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba