By Jaka Ceesay Jaiteh
At least 20 families were left scrambling for options on Tuesday after police evicted them from their houses.
Armed police officers descended on 22 homes in Bijilo early on Tuesday morning and evicted the families.
The eviction crew was acting on a court decision in favour of a foreign investor, The Fatu Network understands.
But the victims say they were being removed unlawfully.
Among the removed residents is Sulayman Badjie and he tells The Fatu Network the case has been festering for about seven years.
He explains: “We are 22 Gambians. We built these properties with our hard earned money. This matter started in 2006. We were not the party that was sued to court, we were not aware of any court proceedings.
“In 2012, the foreign investor alongside his partner Alieu Barry just came all of a sudden one day with a truck full of police and they started throwing our stuffs out and we were evicted. From then on, we found out what was wrong, they said there was a European called Barn George Degrich who claimed ownership of all these plots.
“When we found out, we knew that he had an agricultural lease which he actually breached because it was about 10 to 15 years and he never did anything agricultural on the plots. When we came here, it was bushy. It was all full of plants and trees and everything.
“There was no development and we did all our searches and it was said there was no encumbrance on the land. So we purchased our land and built on it. Some of these lands are even lease held because what happened is before we purchased the land we did out diligent searches to all relevant departments and physical planning officers were here to check whether it is safe to buy.
“They gave the green-light to buy. Some of us even bought it from real estate agencies and we have all the documents to the land. And all of a sudden this thing happened without our knowledge. We were not given any notice.
“After we were evicted, we held a meeting as concerned land owners and we said, ‘let’s write a petition.’ At that time, the only person you could talk to and yields dividends was the president.
“Normally the court would knock on your door but we were not served. We only came to be aware of the situation when the police came with their vehicle. They evicted us as I told you, then these people automatically occupied the place. They had all the 22 properties at their disposal.
“They even went to the extent of writing property for sale on the fences of the compounds and it was then that we held a meeting as concerned land owners and decided to write a petition to the president. Our complaints were then investigated by the police headquarters and we were all called to the police headquarters including the white man.
“It was then that a panel was set by the former government and this panel consisted of the Judiciary, Ministry of Lands, The Office of the President and the police.
“The case was on going from 2012 to 2014 when the panel gave in their final judgement by granting us legal ownership of our lands and offered a plot of land to the white man (Bern George Degrich).
“The pannel gave a final judgement in 2014 by offering the white man another plot of land in Jamburr and we were all returned the keys and documents to our compounds. We had been living in peace until today (26th February 2019) when police officers came in to our houses asking us to evacuate from our homes…”
