By Amadou Jadama
The alkalo of Jomar village in Kiang East, Karamo Sawo, has been suspended for six months, a letter from the governor of Lower River Region Seedy Lamin Bah, seen by The Standard revealed. According to the letter, the suspension is as a result of alleged incompetence of the alkalo over a difference between the villagers and Long Jian, a Chinese company contracted to build the Kabada roads. It also came after President Adama Barrow claimed at his meeting that he was disappointed that the villagers prevented the company from mining sand in the village.
The villagers said this was a misinformation allegedly fed to the president by Governor Bah who they accused of meddling in the discussions between them and the company over royalties to the village for destruction of their farm land.
According to villagers in a statement seen by The Standard, they have secured an agreement with the Chinese company to pay them D1,000 per trip as well as frequent repair of the access road to the sand quarry. They said the access road is being repaired and since then the company made a total of 43 trips which by the agreement should cost D43,000.
“But the governor turned with D20,000 suggesting that this would be the whole up sum for the entire duration of the contract which is four years. This was not accepted but to be fair with everyone, we decided that the D20,000 be deducted from the 43 trips they took which gives us a balance of D23, 000 by our agreement and since then, Chinese did not come back to give us any money or to carry on mining, saying that we should contact the governor,” the statement said.
They denied ever stopping mining there. They admitted that they initially demanded D5,000 and later D3,000 per trip but finally settled for D1,000 at a meeting attended by the National Road Authority and other relevant authorities.
“Everywhere in the world and even in The Gambia, mining companies do give back something to the communities whose land is affected and that is all what Jomar is asking for,” the villagers said.
Governor Bah denied meddling in the affairs of the village and the company, arguing that his office has to be involved as it his duty to ensure that government policies and development projects are implemented in the region without hitches and he has done that in this case through using the standard protocols both personally and through the district chief and other relevant authorities. The governor said he himself had taken the trouble by going to the village over the matter and handed them D20,000 but was disrespected by the villagers, notably the imam. He said the villagers initially demanded D400, 000 and several back-and-forth meetings were held including ones when he was out of the country. He said government has right to and over all land in the country if it wants to use it for national development without any condition. “I tried to make this clear to them and made them see logic and negotiate reasonably so that the community can have something but I was greeted with disrespect and contempt,” the governor lamented.
At a decisive meeting at his office, expected to bring about a truce last Thursday, Governor Bah informed the villagers that henceforth, sand would be mined from the village for free “because the project is for development of the country and if anybody tries to stop us from mining, if anything happens to you is left to you. This is the message I have for you and I am not going to tell you where I got it. This is national development and it is in the interest of everybody. Anything this company needs, be it sand or gravel, they will mine it,” the governor said.
He continued: “I am not going to insult any of you, but what is going to happen, it must happen. I give you respect but what the government says, that’s what I am going to do, because I am here for that. In fact, I am a native of this region; if I don’t develop here, then where am I going to develop?
I don’t need money and I am not going to give you anything. If the Chinese give you anything that is not my business but they must carry out sand mining.”
The governor also produced what he said was a copy of a judgement delivered in 2015 by Chief Yahya Jarju Sey over a land dispute between Jomar and Kolior.
“In fact, in that judgement, I found out that the sand mining site does not belong to Jomar village,” the governor alleged. However, the villagers said the said judgment which is being challenged in court was over a field different from the site of the sand mining and the case was in fact between a particular kabilo in Kolior and Jomar village. Speaking earlier, Karamo Sawo denied that his villagers prevented the Chinese from mining in the village and emphasized that the agreement they had with the company is D1,000 per trip as royalties for the village and since that day they did not come back. He said the sand mining site is indisputably their farm land where the villagers grow groundnut. “Even before now, many villages have been mining sand from Jomar, paying royalties to the village,” villagers said.
Governor Bah then intervened: “In fact, that one thousand dalasi is not going to be paid anymore and the mining must be done.”
Chief Alhaji Ansumana Sanneh of Kiang East and Chief Yahya Jarju Sey both appealed to the people of Jomar, particularly the youth to allow the Chinese company to carry out the mining.
The villagers said they will do everything to ensure that the community’s interest is served in this matter.
