Shiekh Secka, a tailor from Kerr Mot Ali in the Central River Region has confirmed the arrest and detention of over 40 followers of Shering Ndigal in Farafenni, Kaur, Kenye Kenye, Jagleh, Njogobeen, Njau among other communities and all held at Bansang Police Station.
Secka, who is on the run told this reporter on the phone from Kerr Mot Ali-Senegal that Musa Mbye, Bantanto village, Ali Amie Secka, Mbalgoh village, Omar Daye John, Njogobeen village, Ali Narr Ceesay, Njogobeen village, Abdoulie Mbye, Jagleh village, Ali Kura Ceesay, Kaur are all under detention.
He further revealed that Habib Secka, Mottala Secka, Modou Habib Secka, Rahmatoulie Secka, Abdou Secka, Shiekh Bamba Sy, Mustapha Ceesay and Isatou Jeng Secka were all arrested in Farafenni and currently detained at Bansang police.
Secka, travelled to Senegal last for the festival also he and over 40 people are currently stranded in Kerr Mot Ali-Senegal, saying that after three attempts to return back to the Gambia failed he has no choice other than to call on the Gambian authorities to allow them to enter.
He stated that most of those stranded people are professionals who left their families behind to attend a religious gathering, adding that their continued blockage will have adverse effects on the livelihoods of their families and on their businesses they left behind.
“I want to appeal to President Adama Barrow and his government to allow us entry into our country. We are all Gambians; we are only forced to migrate into Senegal due to the heavy handedness of former President Yahya Jammeh who denied us from practicing our religion in our own country,” Secka noted.
Babucarr Secka, a native of Kerr Mot Ali-Gambia who is currently stranded at Kerr Mot Ali-Senegal said more than forty (40) Gambians mainly followers of Shering Ndigal are stranded in Senegal after many attempts to returned to the Gambia proved futile, adding that three
Passenger vans that were hired to transport followers for their religious gathering have also been stranded at Kerr Mot Ali-Senegal since Saturday.
According to him, most of those stranded came to the village to attend a religious gathering organised for their late leader, adding that these people have make many attempts to returned to their families in Kombo but are blocked from entering the country by paramilitary Police officers who are at the border and preventing them from entering the country.
“We have more than forty people here who are all Gambians and wanting to return to their families but they are not allowed in by the paramilitaries at the border,” Secka disclosed to this medium.
He added: “We are all concerned citizens with all our documents and yet we are denied to our country to reunite with our families. Since last Saturday anyone who attempts to enter into the Gambia, you are denied entry and to us, it is not fair to deny us entry into our country by our own government.”