A witness to the Gambia Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission has claimed to have “special powers” and no one dared to hit him as “they would die”.

The witness, Yahya Jammeh, not the former president, is a member of the United Democratic Party and one of the anti-Jammeh protesters arrested alongside Solo Sandeng in April 2016. 

“No one hits me, anyone who hits me dies,” Mr Jammeh told the Commission.

“I don’t want to talk in the midst of the public to show off myself because no matter how brave you are, someone will be braver than you, but I am untouchable.”

But TRRC lead counsel Essa Faal asked him whether he was hit on the day of his arrest by personnel of the Police Intervention Unit.

And Mr Jammeh replied: “yes, someone hits me.”

Essa Faal: “Did he die?”

Mr Jammeh: “Yes, he died but I don’t know him.”

Meanwhile, he explained that police used rubber bullets to disperse the protesters.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba