Suntou please post for me on the G-L. Thanks:
It was a warn Tabo-Koto July mid-morning in 1994. The time was around 9.30 am . The coup was in progress, but I did not know it yet. As I headed for the Latri-Kunda car park for The Daily Observer in Bakau, I notice something very strange. Everyone in Tabo-Koto and Fagi-Kunda seemed to be coming towards my direction and there were no moving vehicles on the roads. As I walked towards the car park, I kept asking people I met what was going on, but no one really knew. Around the Latri-Kunda market, I saw people I knew and went to them. They thought a coup was in progress, but were not sure. I decided to press on to Sere-Kunda. I walked all the way to Sere-Kunda market as many other people were also doing. Throughout the trip, military vehicles were coming and going either towards Brikama or Banjul . There was a large crowd of confused citizens around Sere-Kunda market who had idea what was going on either. Everyone saw what I saw; soldiers with guns driving ceaselessly up and down the streets. At the Sere- Kunda police station, a group of soldiers had surrounded the station; trapping all the police officers inside. Outside the station another crowd of curious onlookers gathered. I elbowed and shouldered my way through the crowd to a military officer standing outside the station main door, who liked like he was the leader of the military contingent and I asked him what was going on. "Mr. Jallow, get out of here.” He said. I repeated my question and he repeated his answer. So I walked back. I was able to gather pieces of information here and there and I went to Sweabou Conateh's newspaper office at the Sere-Kunda market and called the Observer and the Point to file a report. I think I was the only reporter out and about gathering news on that day. Everyone else from the Observer to the Point and Sweabou’s Gambia News were holed up in the safety of their offices. In any case, after three hours, I began to the long walk back to Fagi Kunda. Around the twin storey building near where the Brikama Highway branches into the Banjul and Sere- Kunda roads, I found a group of about five people standing by the side of the road talking rather animatedly. The gentleman in the middle was doing the talking while everyone else listened. I stopped to listen to what they were discussing, but within a few minutes, some military vehicles appeared in the distance around Bambo Nightclub, racing towards Brikama. As the military vehicles approached the gas station at the corner, the man in the center of the group turned around and without saying a word, bolted and ran inside the twin storey compound leaving a trail of dust behind him. I turned and looked at him disappear hurriedly behind gate of the compound leaving the other people behind. I could not believe what I was seeing. The man was none other than the brave savior, the hero, the sacrificial lamb. The man was Halifa Sallah. I turned around and headed for Fagi-Kunda and towards home. Needless to say, I was very, very disappointed.
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