In its effort to unearth the truth surrounding the mass execution of the 50 West African migrants in The Gambia, the identities of the victims was finally laid bare before the Truth, Reconciliation and Repatriation Commission (TRRC) on Thursday 25th February 2021. 

The hidden and probably the only existing record of the list of murdered migrants was eventually revealed by the then director of operation at NIA now State Intelligence Service Gibril Ngorr Secka. The list included 44 Ghanaians and few Senegalese, Nigerians, Ivorians and Togolese.

Mr. Ngorr Secka read the list bearing the names of the executed Migrants before the perplex commission that spent a considerable amount of time probing into the matter.

“I have always known that a day like today will come and I kept the list tight with someone who has never betrayed my trust and until today it was never shared with any soul on earth,” he said. He went further to confirm previous testimonies as to how they were arrested and subsequently transported across the river by Navy boats Banjul where members of the State Guards boarded them into a bus and accompanied them to Baba Jobe’s residence.

He said the news of the arrest of the migrants was first announced when he and some of his colleagues were at the July 22nd Square attending a musical jamboree along with the former president. He affirmed that any suggestion that Yahya Jammeh did not know about their arrest would be false because upon hearing the news, the former IGP Ousman Sonko, went straight to where the president was seated and informed him.

Ngorr said there was nothing tangible to suggest that the migrants were mercenaries.

By: Fatoumatta Samateh