One Demba Jobarteh, the founder and manager of Gam Holland Foundation (GHF) has sued Salifu Puye, former Governor of Lower River Region (LRR) for wrongfully driving him out of his project site as the founder and bonafide manager of the site in Kiang Central.
“This unrelenting assault on my project has the urgings and promptings of my former Dutch partners, Stichting Oog,” Demba Jobarteh said.
Jobarteh explained that the foundation was set up in 2007 primarily to empower the people of Kiang Central to break free from poverty. He said at the time of setting up the foundation he thought it astute to partner with Stichting Oog to raise funds for our development goals. He said funds were raised in two main ways sending project proposals to donor agencies and aggressive fundraising every year in October dubbed Gambian Day in Holland.
“I write all the project proposals with little or no input from them (Stichting Oog),” Demba Jobarteh disclosed.
He added that initially they received funding for almost all their proposals which he said positively impact the lives of the rural communities. Unfortunately for Gam Holland Foundation, he said all its approved funds from European donors were received on its behalf by Stichting oog in the persons of Frans and Tiny, a Dutch couple.
“This retired couple saw our funds as an expansion of their pension hence they became dodgy with the funds. They sell rural poverty in the forms of pictures and videos to persuade the generous Dutch public to donate to our cause yet the funds were never wholly disbursed to the Foundation,” he pointed out.
Demba Jobarteh claimed that more than D2 Million Dalasi was received by the Stichting Oog in Holland on behalf of GHF and its beneficiaries to purchase tractor, cultivator, milling machine, transport container on tractor, reaping machine, transport equipment, rotating and head harrow among other things but were denied funds to buy the items.
Jobarteh said he was insistent in them accounting for all monies due to the Foundation, they started acting tough and divisive by threatening the target community to fire him from his own Foundation or else no support will be forthcoming from Holland.
“Unfortunately, the District Chief and former Member of Parliament Bakary Seedy Fadera were drawn into the web of the couple to replace my foundation with another one called ‘Holland-Gambia Foundation’ and to be using my project site,” Demba Jobarteh asserted.
He added:”This couple never gave my foundation no money, rather, they shamelessly pocket money meant for the foundation.”
Jobarteh said his former partners were emboldened by the local leaders in their desperate bid to execute their nefarious plans. He claimed that they went to his project site and broke his office doors without any court order. He further claimed that he was summoned before three district chiefs.
Demba Jobarteh said he wrote letters to Office of the former President requesting for his intervention. He also wrote petition to the Office of former Speaker of the National Assembly against Bakary Sedy Fadera, former NAM for Kiang Central. Another letter was written to the Office of the former Inspector General of Police to investigate and recover GHF funds from partners Stichting Oog.
The letter from the Office of the former President has advised him to go to the courts for redress but instead he was arrested on false information. He was taken to a magistrate court. The matter was struck out by Principal Magistrate Isatou Janneh Njie. She struck out the case for lack of diligent prosecution. Accordingly, the accused was discharged.
Jobarteh disclosed that he has made MoU with the communities to acquired the land for the project site.
Meanwhile, the district chief of Kiang Central, former National Assembly Member, Village Heads and some Councillors have signed a petition for him to be removed from the project site even though many of these people were never part of the project.
