A picture taken by Isha a day after the incident showing bruises on her neck

Mustapha K Darboe and Banna Sabally

September 19, the sun fell behind the thick Nyambai forest, to rest for the day. Darkness descends over the regional capital, Brikama. In the country’s only teacher training college, the Gambia College, only the sound of the lonely night birds and croaking sound of frogs break the silence. Students and lecturers have all left for another day. 

The light was on in one office though. A 32-year old Alasana Janneh allegedly lured a girl with trouble over her grades into a meeting, one he appeared to have intentionally scheduled for the night. Fair-coloured, little bearded man with a light body mass, Janneh is about the same height as the young lady. 

*Isha, 22, had issues with 3 of her grades. She sat for English but she could not find it in the portal. She could not sit to her Music exams because she was sick. And did a gender related course called Cross-Cutting and though she scored 75, that too could not be found on the portal. 

It has been a 7-month nightmare in pursuit of her grades. Janneh promised to help her. Unknown to the girl, Janneh’s price for entering the grades for Cross Cutting, and taking care of the other 2, English and Music,  is sex. When Isha noticed the unwanted sexual advances and sensed she could be in danger, she pressed the record button on her iPhone. The details captured the sinister plans of Janneh as he threatened to “kill” her if she “shouted”. 

“Leave me. You are hurting me,” said the girl. “Are you trying to kill me?” Janneh replied: “Why are you shouting? If not, I will kill you here.” Isha said at this time, she was being choked by the firm grips of his hands around her neck. 

The saga begins here

Isha was doing a Diploma in Primary Education. Sometime in February, she realised her grades for a gender-related course called Cross Cutting, English and Music were not entered into the College’s portal. A pursuit for this started. 

Lamin Njie— a staff of NGO Future in our Hands who was a part time lecturer at the College— was the lecturer for Cross Cutting. Njie ceased being a lecturer at the College in July last year. He confirmed to Malagen that Isha had placed several calls to him in pursuit of her marks. He was either too busy or out of town. 

Then on September 18, he took a walk to the College after a brief stop in Brikama. One Mr Badgie—a former colleague he expected to meet—was out of the office. There, he found one Alasana Janneh. They have never known each other before because Janneh, an Admin Assistant, was just about 3 years at the College and a year and few months old at the grades office. He submitted Isha’s grades. 

“While there I even called ……. (Isha) and handed over my phone to Mr Janneh. This was for her to confirm that I have finally re-submitted her grades,” said Njie. The call was brief and his stay in the office was less than 10 mins.  

What Njie did not know though, Janneh had contacts with Isha a week before this call because of her repeated request for her grades. She took his telephone number. After their brief conversation on Njie’s phone— knowing one of her outstanding grades was re-submitted– Isha texted Janneh. 

Requesting a student’s picture

On September 18, Isha shared a series of text messages with Janneh. Though the girl started the text by explaining who she is and why she texted, Janneh requested she send her picture, even before he asked her name. 

Janneh became a little more casual with the student. “Your pics are nice,” he said, and added: “But am not happy.”  The girl seemed perturbed. “Watz wrong?” 

Janneh replied: “U don’t ask about mine… means you don’t need my pics”. The girl answered: “that is not the case. I thought you asked the pictures for recognition. But you can drop yours”.

But Janneh requested, “No. Come home. You will see me face to face.” The lecturer and admin officer in charge of student’s grades, Mr Badgie, has told Malagen that students are not required to interface with him and Janneh for corrections to be made on their grades. “… Anyone who has a problem should not come to us. They should go to the department concerned or the lecturer. They will write on a correction sheet and bring it here,” said Badgie. “… We have a problem of lecturers not complying.”

In the series of exchanges, Mr Janneh first asked for a bribe of D10, 000 to enter the grades. He then demanded the girl meet him at his home in Kololi. Isha told him she was with her mother who was hospitalized at an unspecified health center. This was an excuse not to visit him at home, said Isha. 

Then followed what seems like blackmail. “… You came to the College and everyone will know your issues and the resit is already gone.. And the next resit will be payment. One course D300. If you don’t see all of those marks mean you will pay all of them… but if you decide to come we can meet tomorrow. I will know how to help you privately,” texted Mr Janneh.

Then, on September 19 – the day after the girl’s grade for Cross Cutting was finally re-submitted by Lamin Njie— she went to the College to ensure it was entered. Janneh made her wait until 19: 43 when he began to work on her grade. 

As it gets late, the girl gets worried. And begins texting Janneh. 

19: 19: Isha texted: Hello… Am still waiting

19: 20: Janneh replied: I wanted to use that class but they are still there. Badgie is going. Wait 

19: 23: Isha texted: they left since… plzzz do something, is already late… 

19: 25: Isha texted again: This lecturer has seen me and he is even asking me wat am doing here this late hour

19: 33: Janneh texted: Don’t bother yourself to them. He will go and just pray and go… and I will go with u up to the hospital after I go home. 

19: 36: Isha texted: And wat about me that is sitting in this lonely environment all alone. Is that even safe?

19: 37: Janneh texted: Yes, cuz I check everyone before coming to you… he’s almost done and he will go.. Sorry for that. 

19:41: Isha texted: And besides, y do you even want everyone to leave?

19: 42: Janneh texted: Come 

19: 43: Isha texted: To where

19: 43: Janneh texted: My office

19: 46: Janneh texted again: Waiting 

A student sits at the entrance of the office where Mr Janneh reportedly attempted to rape Isha. He came to see Mr Badgie for correction of 4 of his grades on September 22.

Security guards to the rescue

It was at around 8pm. It was a usual day in summer, unforgivable heat engulfed the college environment. *Pateh and *Lamin, two security guards  at the College, prepared  for their usual overnight watch. 

Any break of silence alerts a vigilant guard. Shortly, a noise was heard in the dark, approaching. Pateh called Lamin’s attention to it. In less than a minute, a fair-coloured girl emerged, shouting “he wants to rape me”.

Lamin did not seem alarmed, initially, as she appeared to have been normally dressed with shoes on her feet. “I took a torch light and put it on her face, her nose was bleeding and there were bruises on  her neck,” Lamin told College authorities in a meeting between Janneh and Isha’s family on September 20, a day after the incident. 

Lamin walked the girl to the office. A dark blue, wooden door, over 3 meter square space, with 2 desks and a couple of materials packed on the right as one enters– Badgie’s office covers a distance of about 40 meters from the College gate in an apartment block facing the campus of the National Agricultural Research Institute. At the door, Lamin found her bag and 2 phones. 

“She told me my head wrapper is at the office. I heavily banged on the door 3 times. I approached him and told him that the girl has accused him of harassing her and I have seen wounds on her. He told me “how about what the girl did to me”. That he does not care. He told me if he wanted to do something to “this nonsense girl”, he would have done it somewhere else but not in his office.” 

Though there was no witness to the scene, the disturbing audio recorded by Isha and obtained by Malagen takes a listening ear into what must have been a very long 8-minute. In about 3 minutes after the unwanted advances started, Isha started fighting back. Janneh reacted with more violence. The girl could be heard saying “you are hurting me”. As he became more aggressive, allegedly choking the girl, she could be heard panting, as she pleaded “please let me go… I am begging you”. “Shut up. Shut up… If not, I will kill you here. Shut up,” said Janneh. The girl replied “I am quiet”, as he pants and cough. She was being choked. “Allow me to breathe please,” she begged. In about 6 minutes later, he was heard asking her to remove her cloths. “Remove it,” he demanded, choking her. “Leave my neck. I will remove it,” she said, in response to which he insisted for three times, “remove it”. At 7: 02, she was completely tired. “Ok. Just give me water. Let me drink,” she pleaded. It would be shortly after this that they appeared to have walked out of the office. Janneh could be heard saying “let’s pass through this”. Isha started running towards the security.

When Malagen contacted Isha on September 21– the third day of the incident— she still had bruises on her neck and complained of pain each time she wanted to eat or drink water without much struggle. 

Isha sustained several bruises on her neck. The marks appeared to have been caused by a fingernail as she struggled to free herself from ‘Janneh’s grip’. After listening to both of them, the security guards engaged their boss, a Mr Cham, who came to the scene that night. 

The girl would spend the night with Cham’s wife. The College authorities and the girl’s family had a meeting over the issue on September 20, before Janneh was handed over to the police. 

Janneh denies any wrongdoing

Though Janneh denied asking Isha to remove her clothes, he admitted meeting her at his office that night. “She said I told her to remove her clothes, you will never hear me say remove your clothes,” said Janneh. “I made a mistake to call her at that time and we have that fighting problem… I apologise for that.”

Unremorseful as he is in denial of attempts to rape her, he would describe her as a “nonsense girl” in a meeting with the College authorities, just as he described her in a confrontation with the security guard. 

“If I wanted to do such thing with this nonsense girl, I repeat my words, I will call her another place. Not here. I will do whatever I want…,” said Janneh in a joint meeting between Isha, her guardian and College authorities on September 20. Interestingly though, the trail of text messages between him and the girl shows he first suggested his house as the meeting ground. 

In the meeting, he claimed he could not take a girl to his house because he has a wife and a daughter, both of whom are home. But when asked for the mobile number of his in-laws and wife who were to be contacted, he said his wife had traveled and was away for about a month now, contradicting his earlier statement. 

Isha told Malagen that though Janneh reached out for her genitalia, he could not remove her cloth or touch her private part. Even with the slightest degree of penetration with his finger or touching her private part, Janneh’s actions will qualify rape. The Gambia’s Criminal Code has a provision on attempted rape but the Sexual Offences Act repealed it. In the absence of “attempted rape” in the laws of the country, the police could not charge Janneh with rape. On September 22, the police told Malagen they charged Janneh with abduction and assault.

“The investigations are ongoing and hopefully, we will put him before the court on Monday…,” said one of the officers investigating the case. 

What is clear though, Janneh did not deny meeting the girl or flirting with her. The bruises on the girl’s neck were as evident as the phone recording and the College security also put Janneh at the scene several hours above normal working hours, 4pm, testifying to seeing the girl yelling for help, with bruises on her neck and a bleeding nose. And when the security walked the girl to the office she identified as the scene of the alleged crime, they found the girl’s bag and 2 phones.    

Issues with grades are commonplace 

At least 2 students have told Malagen that having issues with grades is a yearly problem for most students. Often the grades are missing, not entered or the students failed to sit for the exam or sat for it in the wrong hall, one student told Malagen.

This could be confirmed by the presence of a number of students who came to Badgie on September 22 for correction or entering of their grades. 

Badgie, who shares the same office with Janneh, is a lecturer and administrator responsible for issues of grades at the College. 

His usual day is a long one, forcing him to sometimes stay until 7pm. Badgie confirmed he was at work that day until after “Magreb” which corroborates the time (19: 20) Janneh told the girl to “Wait” because “Badgie is going”. 

On September 22, Malagen confirmed that Janneh did enter Isha’s Cross Cutting grades into the portal that night, as testified to by the girl. But the 2 other courses she had issues with, English and Music, remain the same. “He said he will enter the grades for my two other courses if I have sex with him and I refused. That is why he wanted to rape me,” Isha told Malagen on September 21.