By Tabora Bojang
At least a dozen youths and elderly people from Wuli East appeared before the National Assembly Public Petitions Committee yesterday to give testimony on their petition to parliament urging them to investigate police reluctance to stop animal rustling in the region.
The chairperson of the Wuli East Animal Protection Association, Tunko Singhateh, told deputies that the inaction of the police after several complaints and arrests of suspected criminals from Senegal and other parts of the country has led to the formation of a local vigilante group which consists hundreds of youths to fight off cattle thieves in their area.
Singhateh said a year into the formation of the group, rustling of cattle and other ruminants continue to surge in the area due to inactivity by the Upper River Region police.
“We have complained to the Interior minister and the IGP about the reluctance of the police to prosecute suspected livestock thieves as well as offenders of the Livestock Act. They promised to look into it and also pledged to change the police leadership at Basse but even after the change we have not seen any [improved] results. The police are still refusing to apply the law on these thieves who are slaughtering our livestock in secret places and selling the meat in and outside the country and pillaging them across the border,” he added.
The adviser to the Wuli East Development Association, Mr Saiba Naso, said the parliament failed to act in ending police negligence against offenders despite glaring evidence, adding that the matter could generate into a full blown crisis as suspected accomplices live in communities.
“If the trend continues, it would generate an unfortunate incident that would go down into history, because we have been pushed to the corner cattle owners and herdsmen are now buying guns to fend off criminality.”
Naso alleged that one Amadou Gajigo a businessman from Wuli Sara Bugu has been the principal mastermind in orchestrating cattle thievery in the region.
“He is a powerful man who has given livestock owners a stiff resistance. He is living in a highly fenced compound where he does his slaughtering at night and that’s when cattle and livestock gets missing but surprisingly each time cases are reported to the police against him nothing comes out of it,” he told lawmakers.
The National Livestock Owners Association head, Mr Adama Bah, also described Amadou Gajigo as the man behind all the livestock rustling in the region, saying the government is “aware of his actions but did not do anything”.
Saikou Fatty, the lawyer for the association, said contrary to their primary mandate to protect the lives and properties of the citizens, the police are dragging their feet on surging criminal activities in the region.
He urged lawmakers to recommend to GLMA against re-issuance of Gajigo’s licence and prosecute him for violating the act.
Abdoulie Bah, a victim of cattle theft, said: “Sometimes we wonder if The Gambia has two presidents in Adama Barrow and Amadou Gajigo. I met my stolen cattle being slaughtered in Gajigo’s house with all the evidence but when I reported the matter to the police they ended up detaining me on the basis that I falsely accused him.”
Musa Danso said since the formation of a vigilante group consisting people from at least 40 villages in Wuli, they have arrested 11 cattle thieves including non-Gambians.
“We handed over six of them to Senegalese authorities and they were sentenced, but the five Gambians were freed after we handed them over to the Gambian police.”
