Africa-Press – Gambia. In the wake of the recent demolition of houses at Sukuta-Salagi, a senior Gambian lawyer Lamin J Darboe has called President Adama Barrow to set up a commission to investigate the entire crisis-from the ‘unlawful’ acquisition of land by government to the conduct of officials at the ministry of lands.
His call echoed similar sentiments from the public after officials of the Department of Physical Planning under heavy security escort, demolished dozens of homes in Salagi leaving uncountable numbers of families homeless. Officials argued the houses demolished have encroached on reserved government land but many victims showed sketched plans and building permits purportedly issued by the same department.
Speaking on The Brunch on Kerr Fatou on Saturday, Lawyer J Darboe said government is hundred percent wrong on both legal and moral grounds to demolish the houses.
“Government has no mandate and authority to intervene in that part of Salagi because the lands were never acquired as mandated by law from the traditional owners. I have been involved in many land cases in Salagi. You can trace the history back to when the Kabilo members of Sukuta- Kenebaring wrote to the IGP and the Minister for the Interior to report that government officials are stealing their land. The government reacted by setting up a panel managed by the IGP and the ministry of lands in 2019,” Mr Darboe said.
He went on to allege that at the end of that panel’s enquiry, they refused to share the report with the Kabilo and he had to write to the IGP in 2022, threatening to sue them if they failed to produce the report in seven days which he said was ignored.
“Eventually though I got the report and it confirmed that government did not acquire these land from the members of Kabilo of Kenebaring in Sukuta properly but, ironically, the report went ahead to recommend that those members of the Kabilo who protested should be prosecuted for tress-pass. Look at this irresponsible behaviour,” Darboe charged.
Counsel Darboe explained that the law obliges government to legally acquire land from its owners and pay them adequate compensation before it can take their lands for public use. “These procedures were violated and most of the lands falsely declared as lands for public use ended up in the hands of senior government officials using them as private residences.”
He further explained there is a possibility that President Barrow is being misled on these excesses by his legal advisers and technicians at the ministry of lands.
“But if I were him, I will get down to the bottom of the matter and no one will be able to fool me. The law states that government must first acquire land before it can do anything about it, and even though section 22 of the constitution states that government can forcibly take land, this can only be for public use and not for private use. But now go and see how most of these lands have been acquired by senior government officials for private use at Salagi,” he argued.
The senior lawyer further dismissed claims that the lands are reserved for use as cemeteries, schools, fire and police stations among others as “complete lies fabricated by the ministry of lands with its technical department, physical planning.”
He alleged that some of the lands they claimed to be reserved for institutions like Gamtel are not even known to officials of those institutions and most cases these lands ended up being sold by the officials themselves
“And even if those institutions [Nawec and Gamtel] are aware of it, the land must first be acquired properly from their owners before they can be used for public purposes. So government employees involved in this found themselves in a dilemma. They have sold the lands and lied to government. Now if the president wants to uncover the truth, he must set up a commission and ensure that citizens who are affected are adequately compensated because this is travesty. It is injustice. And all is rooted in lies and fabrication,” the lawyer stated.
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