The ministry of local government has claimed the decision from the mayor of Kanifing Municipality reeked of an attempt to direct the ministry to a particular line which is not in line with the local government act.
Two Faals had since last year been locked in a bitter war over who should be the new leader of Latrikunda Yeringaya.
The war between Pa Omar Faal and Swaibou Faal is now over after the intervention of the ministry of local government and lands who ruled Pa Omar is the right person for the job.
The Kanifing Municipal Council had been leading the effort in resolving the crisis but according to the ministry of local government, the council employed an illegal process and tried to direct the ministry towards a particular line.
Local government ministry permanent secretary Buba Sanynag told West Coast Radio: “The KMC mayor must have to understand that he’s given a leverage to recommend for the minister but it doesn’t mean the minister has to go by that. He has to understand that. We looked at the process that the KMC followed. What they did was they took papers to people to sign. This is not prescribed in any act, this is not the procedure in selecting and alkali.
“But even if we have to go by that, we came to realize that the aspirant candidate himself was going round to collect these signatures and also there are people we know who were part of that list are not yard owners, they’re tenants in those compounds. We were able to establish all those facts. So I want to make it on record that the law says we should follow traditional lines of inheritance.
“I want to give you an example: we all know Gambians tribes have the same standards in terms of following our traditional lines of inheritance in the sense that if you are a father or an uncle in a family, however young you are, you are considered before a son or a nephew. I think this is across our customs and traditions in this country. If you are a father, I might be 25 years as a father, somebody might be 40 years as a son but when the throne comes, they consider the father first before the son. Unless and until I say I am not interested.
“[In] Latrikunda case, the aspirant candidate who is the imam wrote to the mayor informing him that he is not interested as being the next [in line to] the throne. They wrote to the mayor himself telling him that he said he is not interested but he recommends Pa Omar Faal as the next to the throne. And also the Faal family of about six or seven of them wrote also to the mayor indicating that they are supporting the candidature of Pa Omar Faal.
“This ministry, after we received the list from the Lord Mayor, we wrote to him requesting that let the mayor provide the minister all the correspondences he received regarding this matter to enable the minister make a decision. And his response was those correspondences he doesn’t deemed them necessary and he has discarded that. I have a correspondence to that effect. That is not correct. Somebody gives you power to go down and do a work for him.
“If you feel that you have picked up information against or for a particular thing, you should make it all available to the person if you want him to make a correct decision. The decision that came from the office of the mayor is more of directing us to a particular line which is not in line with the local government act. Because that one (Swaibu) is not in the line of fathers. Pa Omar Faal is an uncle and Swaibu is a son.”
