This was revealed at a press conference organised by the Lamin VDC held at the said reserved land. The overall land space is said to cover 426m by 639m by 508m by 608 meters.
In his remarks, Jammeh E.K. Bojang, Chairman of the Lamin Village Development Committee revealed that the said alleged allocation was not with the consent of the Lamin Alkalo, the village elders or the sports committee.
He revealed that the area site-3, which is a property of Lamin Village, was leased to the Agricultural Unit of the then Agriculture Department under Yahya Jmmeh’s regime to enable them conduct trials in the said land.
Mr Bojang said: “in 2014/2015 precisely, the lease expired and the land was handed over to the community of Lamin when former President Yahya Jammeh was in power. It was returned with a sketch plan and the infrastructure that was to be built in this area.”
He said: “we are calling on the government to intervene before it gets to crises point. We don’t want it. What government calls on now is development and we are all putting our hands-on deck to achieve that and develop our communities.”
He advanced “we call on the President and his Cabinet to look at the dynamics of land and help protect them for the communities. Elections have passed, so protections of the people should be of essence now.”
He added that Lamin is one of the major zones in the country which annually registers 24 football teams within Lamin and its surroundings.
He said “we went to the Police Station and gave a statement. We made it clear to the Police that we are the owners of this land and we are never going to give it up for anything or anybody.”
In his remarks, Yusufa J. Gomez, Lamin VDC, Secretary General, revealed that “in our master-plan of this area, we were planning to demarcate a mini stadium, a clinic, a Post Office, a Fire and Rescue Service Station, a market and a national garage among other amenities.” He said that discussions have been done in the Ministry of Interior and the Governor’s Office in Brikama.”
“We will never give up this land for anybody and for anything. We want government to protect our lands, this is what belongs to us. We should be equally in the eyes of the law.”
