By Buba Gagigo
The Village Development Committee (VDC) of Lamin has appealed to the government to intervene in the ongoing land dispute between Suku Singhateh and Lamin village.
Social media publications have recently claimed that Suku has secured a vast tract of land in Lamin behind St. Peters, a place known as Site 3. It is reported that Suku has already begun demarcating the area.
The VDC of Lamin village, in a press conference on Sunday, said that they are not aware of how Suku secured the land.
“The venue we are doing this press conference is a property of Lamin. That was leased to the then agriculture department, to be specific, the Agricultural Research Unit. Then it was a unit under the agriculture department. It was leased to enable them to conduct trials here, at least got expired and was formally handed over to the community of Lamin because it was the community of Lamin that gave them this piece of land,” Yusupha Gomez of Lamin VDC.
Yusupha Sanyang, head of competition at the Lamin Sports Development Association, said that the association plans to build a mini stadium on the land for the youths of Lamin Village.
“We got this land, it is very big. We have begun developing a 200×200-meter area that will eventually become a mini stadium for the town. The stadium will include a volleyball court, a basketball court, a sports center, and a creation center for kids and youths. This will help to divert them away from drug use and into sports. We are committed to this project and will not take it lightly. We want to make sure that we have a space that the youth will enjoy,” he said.
Jammeh EK Bojang, Chairman of the Lamin Village Development Committee, called on President Barrow and his government to intervene before it is too late;
“How can the authorities just wake up in the morning, take a sip of coffee, take a vast junk of land from the community, and allocate it to one person? That’s not fair. The Alkalo didn’t know anything about it, the village elders didn’t know anything about it, and the VDC didn’t know anything about it. The sports committee never heard of it. So we got baffled, we needed to fight back. We cannot relent.
“We have to make sure that what belongs to us comes to us and is owned by us. We will never give up this land for anybody and for anything. We will never, we want the government to protect our lands. This is what we have, we cannot go to Wuli or Sandu and claim land there. We cannot because the land there doesn’t belong to us. What is most unfair is for Kombo lands to be state lands. Why? We are calling on the government to intervene before it gets to a crisis point. We want to send this message, and we call on the president and his cabinet to look at the dynamics of land and help protect them for the community,” he said.