By Sulayman Bah
The crisis engulfing Manjai sports is showing no sign of ending with the arrest of Lamin Keita as the latest 
development in the ongoing saga.
Keita, Secretary General of Manjai Youth Development Association (MYDA) and Park manager, was over the weekend apprehended, detained and charged at the Manjai Community Police Station.
Keita,Foroyaa Sport understands, is facing allegations of collecting money by false pretense and disobedience to lawful order relating to the management of the Manjai sports complex.
Manjai police Station Officer declined to comment on the matter when approached on Saturday evening.
Manjai sports have been rocked by crisis for close to one-year, as MYDA and the Manjai Sports Committee (MSC) continue to battle over control of the sports complex.
The MSC was a sub-committee answerable to MYDA before it seceded from the latter at its recent congress with intervention of the Kanifing Municipal Council’s sports tribunal.
The sporting entity’s separation from its parent body was fueled by MYDA’s claims that Lamin Darboe, current MSC head, who was recently re-elected, and his executive, have embezzled funds and refused to be audited, among other allegations.
And as per the rules binding MYDA and MSC, the former decided to intervene by first sending a 30-day notice to the Darboe led executive to answer to the charges by subjecting itself to an audit and to convene a congress following purported elapse of their one-year tenure.
The crisis took a twist when Darboe sought for the intervention of the KMC divisional sports body, which issued a ruling for the zone’s sports entity to be seperated from MYDA.
In the municipal council divisional body’s declaration, the Manjai Sports Committee should be solely responsible for matters regarding management of the field and staging nawettans without being grilled, while restricting MYDA’s role to other areas, excluding sports.
The municipal council sports institution made its judgment based on practice of other sports committees around the country but which MYDA vehemently opposes, arguing that they have got the backing of the Manjai community who are the first custodians of the said complex and have helped transformed it to its current state with a $1000 fund donated by government during the transition from military to civilian rule.
Numerous meetings, which at one point, included the village alkalo and ward councilor, have since been held to broker a compromise between the warring factions with little success.
August this year, MYDA’s President Abdourahman Bah and SG Lamin Keita were arrested by the Manjai police before being later released on claims the duo allegedly refused to hand over keys of the complex, which was considered by Association’s executive members as an ‘intimidation tactic’ by their ‘detractors’.
