“Free My husband (Ebou Jobe) and companion Alagie Ceesay.” Mai Badjie (The Heroine Of the Washington Protest)
The estranged wife of abducted naturalised United States citizen has brought Kairo Radio listeners to tears at the Washington anti-Jammeh protest. Mai Badjie, the wife of Ebou Jobe, spoke to Kairo Radio’s Mohammed Lamin Sillah. Mai’s emotionally powerful message left many listeners speechless.
Mai made a powerful plea for her husband’s freedom. Her statement became even more somber when she made public her children’s message. “My children continue to inquire about the whereabouts of their father. They want to know when their father will come home,” said a young lady who has been battling with several months of trauma and insecurity.
The story of Mai Badjie is synonymous in a country where the government’s brutality has either left breadwinners disappeared without trace, killed or detained without being tried. That is what families in Yahya Jammeh’s Gambia continue to endure on a daily basis.
Ebou Jobe and his companion, Alhagie Ceesay, lived in the United States for more than a decade. They withdraw all their savings and pension benefits and traveled to the Gambia with the intention of establishing business. Ebou and Alhagie were abducted and have been transferred from one detention center to another. However, despite the involvement of the American Embassy in Banjul, Jammeh dictatorship refused to renege and accept keeping Ebou and Alhagie.
Mai Badjie’s stance on her husband’s situation is similar to that of Nyima Sonko, the wife of UDP youth secretary Ebrima Solo Sandeng who confronted the NIA insisting that her husband was treated well.
One cannot have blood running in your veins, have children of your own, value your Gambian identity, belief in God, and then hear sister Mai Badjie speak and not be moved. Mai, you have re-energise many Gambians, along with all the other protesters.
Yahya Jammeh is tearing the peaceful lives of ordinary couples. However, let us all be watchful over his return journey back to Gambia. It is possible that, some innocent citizen will pay the price for the humiliation he got at the hand of activist.
Below is the facebook posting I made:
Listening to the wife of Ebou Jobe who is abducted in the Gambia alongside Alagie Ceesay @Washington protest yesterday, one cannot but fall into “dowynaram/balaboro) mode. It is so moving, so sad. Anyone who is aware of the crimes committed by the Jammeh administration and continues to support him falls into the crime of ‘immorality with their conscience’. Just listen to the sister with ML Sillah @kairo radio
The whole world was listening to every voice, every sound bites coming from the protest ground, on Fatu Radio, Kairo, Freedom and other platforms. All the speakers, Coach-Pasamba Jow. pata, FJM, Dr Saine, Mr Conteh, Falai all were on the money, but when I heard the wife of Ebou, sister Mai Badjie, speaking, men, all my hair stood on end. Something got to be done, this mess is tearing families and communities apart. Great you guys took the stand. Mai, you moved people, I pray that, Ebou and Alagie and all the brothers abducted, jailed on false grounds are fine and one day soon, they can all be freed.
Allah is the greatest may He bring back your husband and his friend Amen.