Strangulated, Decapitated and Chopped into Pieces: Jungular’s Graphic Details of Alhajie Ceesay and Ebou Jobe’s Alleged Killing

Former Jungular (ex-president Yahya Jammeh’s hit man) Omar A. Jallow Wednesday gave graphic details of how he and his colleagues killed Alhajie Mamut Ceesay and Ebou Jobe on Jammeh’s instruction.

Gambian-American childhood friends Ceesay and Jobe traveled to The Gambia in May 2013 to set up a joint business, according to family sources. They disappeared about a month later and the rest of the story became cloudy. Family members feared they were kidnapped by state security, a charge the authorities turned a deaf ear to.

Ceesay Alhaji, a father of two worked as an infrastructure systems analyst for Chevron and Texaco in the U.S city of Houston, while Jobe, a father of three, was an operations manager at Walmart in the U.S.

In his second day of testimony at the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, ex-soldier Jallow said he and other jungulars were instructed by their commander, Major Nuha Badjie to gather at their base in Kololi. He named Cpt. Momodou Jarju alias Rambo, Lt. Mustapha Sanneh, Lt. Michael Jatta, WO2 Fansu Nyabally, WO2 Pa Sanneh, Staff Sgt. Amadou Badjie, Staff Sgt. Sulayman Sambou and Cpl. Saikouba Jarju as members of the team that converged at the Kololi base.

“When we gathered there, Nuha Badjie told us that there was an operation we were to execute,” Jallow testified. “He told us that there were two Gambian-Americans who came from America to overthrow the government of Yahya Jammeh.”

“He informed us that the two guys were at that moment at a hotel and that Michael Correa was there to track their movement.”

Jallow told the TRRC that at around 3-4am he and his colleagues put up a checkpoint around the current Petroleum House where they stopped a vehicle carrying Ceesay and Jobe and three others. According to him, the duo was escorted to their apartment for searching. He testified that cash (dollars and dalasis) found in the apartment were taken by him and his colleagues and handed over the Nuha Badjie.

Jallow said Ceesay and Jobe were taken to the jungulars’ base in Kololi for interrogation, confessing that they were tortured during the interrogation.

“They were interrogated by the officers and they told us that these people had confessed that they came to The Gambia purposely to overthrow the government of Yahya Jammeh, and that there was a ship that would bring their weapons into the country.”

Jallow testified that after the interrogation, a call was made to General Sulayman Badjie to inform him that Ceesay and Jobe were in captivity.

“Sulayman Badjie asked us to wait for him to contact Yahya Jammeh who was in Kanilai at the time. We waited till around 5pm and Sulayman Badjie rang Major Nuha Badjie and told him that Yahya Jammeh said he’d like to meet these two people. He instructed us to take them to Kanilai.”

Jallow said when they team arrived at Kanilai, Major Nuha Badjie, Cpt. Momodou Jarju alias Rambo, Lt. Mustapha Sanneh and Lt. Michael Jatta escorted Ceesay and Jobe to ex-president Jammeh’s house.

“They spent about 30 minutes inside. When they came out, Nuha Jammeh stood in front of us and said Yahya Jammeh has given instruction that we kill them and chop them into pieces,” Jallow told the commission.

“We then put them in the vehicle and drove them to Yahya Jammeh’s garden. All of the team members were presented. Solo Bojang was with us to show us where we’d bury them. When we got to the spot identified by Solo, I was among those who went to collect spades and pickaxes.”

Jallow confessed that he was part of the grave diggers, together with Pa Sanneh, Amadou Badjie and Saikouba Jarju.

“The rest of the team covered their (Ceesay and Jobe’s) heads with plastic and strangulated them until they suffocated. Because Yahya Jammeh gave instruction that they be chopped into pieces, Malick Manga and Fansu Nyabally decapitated them. We then buried them in the grave and we left.”

Jallow’s testimony marked the first time a jungular officially confessed to taking part in the killing of Ceesay and Jobe.