By Mafugi Ceesay
& Mariam Sankanu
In a telephone interview with The Standard, the Interior minister Ebrima Mballow has refuted claims that he has assured the Mandinary, Lamin, and Makumbaya and Kerewan villages of funding to demarcate their borders.
According to Mballow, the only time the Babylon issue came to his desk was when he was Governor of West Coast Region when all land disputes were brought to his notice.
“When their issue came to my notice I asked them to go and settle things at their level. This is what I always tell people if you come first and complain. Here is a situation where you have four (4) villages against Babylon and I never mentioned any funds neither have I said anything about monetary issues to demarcate their areas. I won’t. I never discuss that. Tell them I never discussed about that,” he said.
Minister Mballow said when he became minister of Interior, this Babylon issue never reached his office and in this new job, he does not deal with land issues but security issues.
He said it has been more than 8 months since he last discussed with the complaining camp and that he could not remember everything about what they discussed.
Minster Mballow recalled that Babylon wants to be a village of its own.
“These four villages wanted a share of their land so that Babylon will no longer be Babylon. So what I said was for them to go and kindly discuss issues among themselves. Since then I became Minister and no one ever came to me about the issue, let alone providing funds for demarcation. I think they got that wrong,” he concluded.
