Ghanaian businessman arrested in The Gambia

A young Ghanaian man named only as Kofi is reported to be in detention in The Gambia for the past two weeks after the authorities there arrested him for allegedly trying to set up a TV station without permission.

According to US based-online news website, Senegambia News, which put out the story, the Ghanaian is a coordinator of UK-based Atlantic TV and was arranging to open an affiliate station in Banjul.

Editor and publisher of the website, Yankuba Jambang, told J oy News Kofi was arrested as he tried to recruit staff for the new station.

He said although the Gambian authorities claim the Ghanaian was being held for operating illegally in the country without approval from State Department of Communications, Information and Technology, many believe that he was being held for secretly investigating the alleged brutal killings of some 44 Ghanaians and other West African nationals by the Gambian authorities.

The governments of Ghana and The Gambia have been under pressure to thoroughly investigate the alleged murder of the 44 Ghanaians.

A Ghanaian delegation is already in The Gambia prodding the government of President Yahya Jammeh to do more to investigate the killings.

Ebrima Sillah, a Gambian journalist living in exile in Senegal also says the regime of President Yahya Jammeh is well known for its firm hold on The Gambian media and maintains that the case of the Ghanaian man in detention should not be dismissed.