‘Gov’t won’t take lightly illegal sale of Manduar forest’

“As far as the ministry and the government of The Gambia are concerned, this forest is a gazetted forest. Whatever activities that are done in this particular forest is null and void and is illegal,” she said.

Minister Manjang was speaking yesterday during the Ministry of Information’s press conference in which it (Info Ministry) also launched the Ministry Website and other social media handles.

“This is the stand of the ministry and our next action will be who was involved and why among others. We will not take this lightly. We want to set an example. Whoever is involved, we want to make sure that the law takes it due course,” she threatened.

It could be recalled that several youths of Manduar were recently arrested by the police after they protested the “illegal sale” of their community forest. They were later arraigned in court by the police and remanded at the prison.

“We have visited the site with a view to engage the community and address the situation. We have written to the various ministries with a view to have a comprehensive and a background report about what happened. We understand that the sale of these lands started in 2020. A lot has happened in the background, hence we need to have correct information about it before we take any action or decision.”

“I am working with the Ministry of Defence, Interior, Information and Ministry of Lands in order to make sure that we crack down on whatever has happened in this matter which has not followed the due process of the law.”

“We have now established that the forest is a gazetted community forest and it has gone through all the legal process.”

Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, the minister of Information, who was speaking earlier, said: “We will be having periodic press conference in order to inform the general public through the media on what is happening in government; what are government priorities and what are the projects that are going on and the projects that have been completed.”

“We want to have a proactive approach to information dissemination. We will be having a series of programmes and town-hall meetings in order to get information from the public to the government. Therefore, the media will play an important role in this endeavour. We can’t work without the media and the media can’t work without the ministry and the government in general.”

“We want to reset the bottom of our relationship with the media. We don’t want to have any barriers with the media. We want to work with them closely for the public interest. We want to ensure that there is no vacuum anymore as far as information is concerned.”

“When there is a vacuum, it can precipitate instances where misinformation and disinformation will be disseminated and which is not good for the country.”

“The country has been tagged as one of the most stable countries in the sub-region thanks to the government which has now opened up the political spaces. The government has also given the media the space to operate without interference and the government has ensured that people's lives and properties are protected through security measures.”