The Edward Francis Small Centre is hereby deeply concerned and aggrieved by the decision of the Ministry of Lands to allocate part of the Fajara Golf Course to an unknown private company, the ‘Royal Hotel Group’. This decision tantamount to a gross assault on our environment in total contravention of the laws and international commitments of the Gambia to the environment.
We have obtained a letter in which the Ministry in response to a GTBoard enquiry justified its unlawful decision by claiming that the Fajara Golf Course is not part of the lease of the Fajara Golf Club, therefore they can encroach on the property. Furthermore, the Ministry claims that the Fajara Golf Course is not within the Tourism Development Area as per the TDA original lease! We demand that they publish the original TDA lease.
The Fajara Golf Course was established in 1959. It is located squarely within the TDA area. This area is not only ideal for golf but more importantly it is a sanctuary for birds and other small fauna, and various types of flora. Further, the vegetation serves as an ecological lifeline for the cosmopolitan Kanifing Municipality which has grown around it and beyond.
There is absolutely no justification to encroach on even an inch of the sanctuary which has already suffered numerous intrusions especially since the Barrow Government came into being. As much as we are aggrieved by this illegal and inconsiderate decision which only prioritizes selfish interests over national and environment interests, we are not surprised that this decision is coming from a ministry that is headed by Hamat Bah.
Hamat Bah is already a subject of a petition for decisions he made when he was Minister of Tourism regarding GTBoard. In March 2024, the Public Petitions Committee found Hamat Bah culpable for illegal land allocations, interference with GTBoard, and improper conduct in the use of fuel and financial resources of GTBoard. Yet, Hamat is not held accountable until today, neither by the President nor by the IGP.
Therefore, we demand the President to put an immediate halt to the allocation of land in the Fajara Golf Course to anyone. We call on the President to immediately hold Minister Hamat Bah and the Director General of GTBoard accountable for this illegal decision.
We wish to put it to Pres. Adama Barrow that since assuming power, his Government has been consistently violating environmental laws causing the greatest damage to our environment which is our collective heritage.
Fajara Golf Course must be protected, and EF Small Centre is determined to take all necessary legal steps to guarantee that. Today or tomorrow, there shall be accountability.