Ex-Communications minister Amadou Scatred Janneh reported "missing"

Former Information Minister Janneh

Former communications minister Dr Amadou Scatred Janneh has reportedly gone missing nearly a week after he was picked up at his office in Kotu by some people in plain clothes.

According to family sources and close relatives, Janneh, 48, went "missing" since last Tuesday morning after he was picked up at his IT Company, Commit, by some plain clothes officers, who reportedly asked all staff to leave while they closed the office and went away with him.

Family members in Gunjur in the Kombo South district of the West Coast Region told this paper yesterday that Janneh has not been seen since last Tuesday, and that nothing about his whereabouts is known to them, and this was up to the time of going to press.

"We are really worried and terrified about his disappearance," a family member said to be an uncle to Janneh declared.

When contacted, both the public relations officers of the Gambia Police Force and the National Drug Enforcement Agency, ASP Yerro Mballow and ASP Abdoulie Ceesay respectively, denied their institutions have Janneh in their custody.

Having worked with the US embassy in Banjul as political assistant, Janneh served as minister of communications between April 2004 and July 2005.

While his whereabouts remain unclear to family members and close relatives, almost a week after he went "missing", it is expected that if Janneh is in the custody of any of the state security agencies, he will be brought to court without further delay, since the Gambian constitution clearly forbids detention without charge and trial beyond seventy-two hours.

Sources: www.thepoint.gm