By: Lamin B. Darboe
Alhaji Momodou Bojang, Head Chief of Kombo North District has revealed that the Government of The Gambia neither recognized Babylon as a village nor recognized Lamin Jarjue as the village head.
He described self-proclaimed alkalo of Babylon’s actions as impersonation that can be tantamount to obtaining money by false pretense, conspiracy, willful damage to properties and Trespass.
Chief Bojang made this revelation during an exclusive interview with our reporter at his Sukuta resident recently, while 4 other Alkalos within Babylon neighborhood area also shared similar sentiment with Chief Bojang.
According to him, Lamin Jarjue committed this crimes mentioned above along-side with his team and “how can someone whose parents never settle in Kombo claim the ownership within a foreign lands,” he queried.
Bojang explained that Lamin Jarjue has in his custody false documents which he displayed before pressmen in his recent press briefing with journalists in Babylon.
“Even the office of the former Governor, West Coast Region, under Musa Amul Nyassi issued press release stating that “the Government of The Gambia did not recognize Babylon as a village” neither recognized Lamin Jarjue as the village head”, Chief Bojang disclosed.
He informed that the current Minister of Local Government and Lands, Musa Drammeh in December 2018 and himself (Bojang) as Kombo North Chief invited Lamin Jarjue to discuss issue about Babylon but he (Lamin Jarjue) did not honor the invitation.
Four alkalos (village heads) from Mandinaring – Fah Ceesay; Kerewan – Abdoulie Jarjue; Lamin – Ebrima Bojang and Ma-Kumbaya – Kebba Kujabi explained how Babylon came into being.
“Babylon was named after one of the herdsman of the current alkalo of Mandinaring’s grandparents, Fah ceesay called Ba Billo Bah. Ba Billo Bah was with his two brothers called Biggie Bah and Gallo Bah the duo were also herdsmen in the area,” they narrated.
According to the four alkalos, all what Jarjue were saying about Babylon were unfounded thus stressing that none of his parents were ever settled in Babylon.
The four alkalos jointly stated that “the documents Jarjue is having about Babylon are not authentic documents but he displayed those documents to mislead the general public about his dubious act.”
They challenged Jarjue to produce his appointment letter as alkalo of Babylon in order to give a back-up to his claims as a legitimate alkalo of Babylon, hence the record of Babylon as a village cannot be traced out in any office in the country especially at Local Government Ministry and West Coast Regional Governor’s Office.
According to them, Jarjue never inherited any land from his parents at Babylon and also Babylon was not in The Gambia National Gazette. Noting that both Jammeh and Barrow’s Governments conducted their investigation whether Babylon is a recognize village or not but none came up with tangible outcome to ascertain that Babylon is a recognized village.