By: Kebba Ansu Manneh
At least three (3) people who were arrested and detained at Brusubi Police Station for allegedly taking part in the beating of one Muhammed Darboe, a local Community Imam at Salagi have been granted bail by the Brusubi Police, The Voice Newspaper can reports
Lamin Jatta, Gibril Bojang, and Abdoulie Trawally are said to have physically beaten the Salagi community Imam who was also accused of demolishing a property belonging to one member of the aggrieved family of Sukuta battling with the State.
This development comes following last week’s demolition exercise conducted by the Department of Physical Planning which stated that the demolition exercise was triggered by some individual Gambians who unlawfully settled in government reserved lands situated at Salagi.
However, the affected families of Sukuta have been entangled with the officials of the Department of Physical Planning and the Department of Lands over ownership of government reserved lands at Salagi, adducing that the Salagi estate was sanctioned without their traditional owner’s consent as per the Land’s Act of the country.
They have accused senior Physical Planning and Lands officials of grabbing their lands on the pretext of preserving them as government-reserved lands that they later sold out or allocated to families, friends, and girlfriends.
They further alleged that some of the government reserved lands including a hospital, cemetery, and church have been re-demarcated and re-allocated to private individuals through clandestine sales.
Confirming the arrest, detention, and subsequently released of Lamin Jatta, Gibril Bojang, and Abdoulie Trawally, representative of Sukuta Alkalo, Ousman Bojang said this is not the first time their family members have been arrested, detained, and prosecuted merely on their resolve to protect their landed properties.
According to him, the trio was arrested at Salagi after their attempt to prevent one Muhammed Darboe, from demolishing a building housing a lactating mother and her kids whose husband is out of the jurisdiction of the country.
He further said that the beating of Muhammed Darboe came when the trio’s efforts to prevent him from demolishing a part of the lactating mother’s roof proved futile.
He continued to disclose that the said Muhammed Darboe, an Imam of the community came to their brothers’ compound with some group of people including
General Musa Savage, and asked them to leave because the community is starting building a market at the site, noting that Darboe wasted no time after cautioning and starting demolishing their building resulting to the scenario that ensued.
Bojang also disclose that both Lamin Jatta, Gibril Bojang, and Abdoulie Trawally were bailed and released by the Brusubi Police after closed to five hours of detention, following their arrest for unlawful and abuse of power by authorities on innocent citizens whose properties have been forcefully taken without adequate compensation.
In the same development, our reporter who visited the site also spoke with one Lamin Darboe, Secretary to Neighborhood Development Association of Salagi (NDAS) and he recounted that members of his association planned to embark on building their community market allocated by the government.
He noted that based on their plan the Imam of the community Muhammed Darboe was the first to arrive at the site where he was attacked by a group of people from Sukuta.
He further recounted that during the scuffle, Imam Muhammed Darboe’s shirt was torn by the mob that beat him, adding that the matter has been reported to the Brusubi Police who are doing their work.
