By Lamin Njie
Gikay Farms chief executive officer Muhammed Jawara has expressed anger after drug law enforcement officers carried out an operation on his farm which saw his employees taken and the farm left without any security.
A team of DLEAG officers descended on the farm situated in Toubakuta Kombo East last Thursday arresting three of his employees found at the farm.
The boys were arrested at around 8pm for allegedly being in possession of cannabis and taken to the DLEAG office in Brikama – as the multi-million dalasis farm was left without anyone to look after it.
Jawara who’s based in the United States in a video statement made available to The Fatu Network insisted he found the operation itself suspect, as they have been operating for six years and such has never happened.
“I hope what am thinking is not true. I hope it’s not because we had an opposition leader visiting the farm recently, I hope this is not retaliation,” Jawara said as he called out the police throughout.
He said elsewhere in the video: “There are so much stuff there. So at night, 8pm, they arrested all these boys and refused to leave one person to look [after the farm].
“[This was] just for a joint. Am not saying that was ok or it was not ok. But you come into a private property, a Gambian entrepreneurial property at night and arresting everyone that was on site, leaving that property with all these things? If you were not aware that you have all these properties there, then I can understand.
“But they saw all these things there. They saw the tractor, they saw the truck, they saw the generators, they saw the solar panels, they saw the papayas. They decided to leave everything there unprotected, unguarded. Because they found a joint in somebody’s bag. And when the farm manager pleaded with them on leave at least one person to protect, to look after the property, the answer was ‘that’s none of our business’.
The police spokesman Superintendent Lamin Njie (not the author of this story) could not comment on the issue as he insisted drug operations is not the province of the police rather the drug law enforcement agency.
DLEAG spokesman Ousman Saidyba reacting to the claims confirmed to The Fatu Network there was an operation.
He however explained: “To say the farm was targeted because Ousainou Darboe went there has no base and I don’t believe there is any evidence to that effect.
“On the other hand, that place is around the border and there is a team that patrols the area. Our seizures in West Coast Region is always very huge and even your people have covered us several times were we made arrests around the border areas.
“We only have specific places were our people are and these traffickers will always avoid that areas. So on timely basis our officers will go on patrol. So it was one of these patrols they identified this place they suspect to be a farm.
“So they arrived there, identified themselves. They found three boys. They first conducted personal searches on the boys and found nothing on them. They then identified a room that was there. They made it clear to them they want to search that room. They searched the room and found some quantities of suspected cannabis.
“They asked them but none of them claimed ownership. And the Act, Section 35(2), is very clear. That where a suspected prohibited drug is found somewhere and nobody claims ownership, all of them should be taken.
“So the senior officer on the ground, when he realised that there were valuables there, he then asked them of the number of the owner of the place. They gave him the number of somebody who resides in The Gambia here. When he called that person, the person said it was late and he would not be able to get there (the farm).
“So the officer then said since it’s three people and they cannot do the investigation there, they have to take all of them into custody. The assumption is you can leave one person there but what if the person you leave there is actually the actual owner [of the cannabis].
“So they took them to the station. Upon their arrival, when they were interrogated at the station, one of the now confessed ownership. The officers on duty then released the other two boys so that they can return back to the property, then in the morning they can take witness statements from them.
“Perhaps someone might say why didn’t one of the officers stay or they leave a team there to protect the property. We have to be very careful. You don’t know what is there. You don’t have an inventory of all the assets that are there. So what if tomorrow they then come and say x, y and z is missing?”
