Continuing his nationwide meet-the-people tour, President Yahya Jammeh has vowed to disown the villagers of Ndemban and Somita, all in the West Coast Region, if they do not end their eight-year long dispute latest today, Wednesday.
Jammeh, who was speaking Monday at meetings held in the villages of Bullock and Pirang in the West Coast Region, said if the villagers fail to heed his advice, he will disown them forever and deprive them from benefiting from his development projects.
“I am sadden about the eight-year-long dispute between Ndemban and Somita, who share the same parents. I am urging you to settle your dispute or else I will settle it. So it is high time for you to come to terms and be like the people,” Jammeh told the villagers.
He promised to build a skills center in Ndemban village, a senior secondary school in Somita and a major health centre in Bullock. However, he was quick to add that if the two villages fail to settle their dispute before Wednesday, he will cancel the said senior secondary school and skills centre projects.
“These two villages within Foni will not be a deterrent to the development of the Foni, because I know the position of Foni as far as my Government is concerned since 1994,” he said, adding that if the two villages failed to abide by what he said, they would not benefit from the water project coming to Foni. He tasked the Governor of the West Coast Region, Lamin Sanneh, to spearhead the settlement of the dispute with elders of the two villages, latest today Wednesday 27th July 2011.
According to the Gambian leader, if the villagers know that they will not forget and forgive each other, then they are not Muslims and need not to pray before the Almighty Allah.
“If you don’t end your dispute with water, I will end it with fire. So settle it as soon as possible,” President Jammeh said.
Speaking at a meeting in Pirang, President Jammeh called on the youths to venture into farming and seek the blessing of their parents, noting that as young people, they should change their attitudes towards nation-building.
“If you change your attitudes, The Gambia will progress, but if you don’t do so, this country will not prosper as expected,” he added.
He promised the women of Kombo East that he has more development surprises for them, because they have rallied behind him and the APRC party, since 1994.
“I am not saying women are not in opposition, but only a few. It is the men who dominate opposition support in this country,” he said, while calling on his party supporters to open up to those defectors coming to the APRC party, and to forget and forgive about the past.
Ousman Sonko, Minister of the Interior, talking about illicit drugs said in the past Foni used to grow groundnut and rice but now they grow cannabis as their farm produce.
He called on the people of Foni to come together and fight the menace of drug abuse, which he said affects the youth in the country.
The Chief of Kombo East, Alhagie Basiru Jarjue, Aja Isatou Jatta, and Ebrima Saidy both appealed to President Jammeh to help them construct the feeder roads linking Jiboro to Faraba-sutu, Kafuta to Kafuta Tumbung and Tumani Tenda. The villagers also appealed to government to help them with a major health facility within the district.
Other speakers at the Pirang meeting included the Minister of Fisheries, Water Resources and National Assembly Matters, Lamin Kaba Bajo, Penku Fofana, Governor West Coast Region, Alhagie Lamin Sanneh, and Omar Sowe, councillor of Pirang ward.
