By Kemo Kanyi
Operation Clear the Roads task force and the Gambia Police Force Tuesday had a dialogue with the Chairman of the BrikamaArea Council (BAC) at the BAC grounds.
The thinking behind the engagement was to find a lasting solution to the disturbances that erupted on Monday as police tore down stalls and tables of Brikama market vendors.
Teargas was fired and more than 20 people received medical attention at the Brikama District Hospital as a result of the ensuing clashes.
Bakary Manneh, Operation clear the roads team leader, said his team’s activities are not meant to intimidate or destroy any business but to act in accordance with the powers vested on them by law.
“We are not here to intimidate anybody. We are not here to destroy any form of business. Our responsibility is to exercise our role in accordance with the law. That’s to clear the public roads, and we will continue to do,” he assured.
Mr. Manneh admitted that the chaos was caused by a lack of communication between the two authorities.
“The chaos broke out due to lack of communication. Now, we had our understanding during the dialogue. We will jointly collaborate with the council to clear the roads within Brikama,” he said.
Yankuba Darboe, Chairman of Brikama Area Council, said his council had to take the bull by the horns to be heard by the authorities after several attempts to meet with the operation clear the roads team failed to materialize.
“The reason why we were making a lot of noise is because we’re not being heard. We wanted to be heard since day one but to no avail. My vice chairman and some members of the council tried to have a dialogue with the operation team, but it was not possible. This has led us to the unfortunate circumstance on Monday afternoon,” he noted. “Thank God we have been able to dialogue with the operation team and the Gambia police force so that the council can state its position on some of the things surrounding the market,” he added.
He said operation clear the road is a national initiative and Brikama Area Council has welcomed the operation wholeheartedly.
“It’s road that they mentioned, but we are talking about our market. It’s our market that’s been affected, which is why we had to take the stance we took on Monday in order to be heard,” the chairman stipulated.
The chairman continued: “We agreed that the operation will be stopped until after Tobaski. We want the council to be given the opportunity to manage our market as assigned by the law. When we have problems, we can invite the operation team to assist, but if not, we have our own Municipal Police that should be able to manage our make.”