Gambian timber dealers are planning a major demonstration to demand for their seized cars and assets, Freedom Newspaper. The protest has been scheduled for next week, according to Gibril Sissoho, one of the aggrieved timber dealers. Kanilai, the former home of the exiled Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, is the venue for the upcoming protest march.
Senegalese forces stationed in Bwiam have been accused of refusing to release the cars of the timber dealers, even though the court in Brikama has decided on the matter.
According to Mr. Sissoho, even though the convicted timber dealers had paid their respective court fines, the Senegalese forces are not willing to release their impounded cars.
“We have paid our fines. The court had also ordered for our cars to be released, but the Senegalese forces stationed in Kanilai wouldn’t heed to the court order. They told us that for questions regarding our impounded cars, we should speak to President Adama Barrow and President Macky Sall. We have been pursuing them for months, but they wouldn’t release our cars,” Sissoho remarked.
According to Sissoho, the Ministry of Forestry, had later turned around and sold them their seized timbers.
“The seized timbers were resold to us. I bought mine for D20,000 dalasi. I spent more then over D390,000 dalasis to buy mine from the Casamance/Gambian border. We were told by Forestry officer Lamin Bajo that, that what the Forestry rule says,” he added.
Sissoho has denied that they are in the business of smuggling logs from neighboring Casamance, Senegal. He says the logs that they brought into The Gambia, were bought at the border.
Timber dealer Batch Sarr has also complained about a similar treatment being meted out to them by the Senegalese forces. He has accused the Senegalese forces of opening fire on Gambian motorists along the Bwiam road. He says the Senegalese forces would sometimes plant nails on the road to burst their tires.
Sarr says the brutality of the Senegalese forces on the road have reached an alarming proportion. He has appealed for the intervention of President Adama Barrow. He is also demanding for the release of their impounded cars and the timbers that were resold to them by the Forestry Ministry.
Tune into Freedom Radio later to hear the timber dealers complaints against the Senegalese forces. Stay tuned.
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