By Assan Bah
A land dispute at Sinchu Sorrie Village, Kombo North, West Coast Region has caused a premature end of summer classes for innocent pupils at the Sinchu Sorrie Lower Basic School.
This dispute allegedly involved the family of one Sulayman Sillah from Banjul, the Alkalo of Sinchu Sorrie, Pa Saidou Jallow, and one Mr Saidou Jallow, the Village Development Committee (VDC) Chairman, over a reserved land which was initially allocated to the ‘Youth Front Against Drug and Alcohol’ by the community of Sinchu Sorrie in the 1980s.
The incident which occurred on Thursday, August, 28th has both emotionally and mentally affected the children of the said school and these pupils risk accessing basic education due to the dispute on their recently built school, while others may not have access to basic education at all.
Upon receiving reports of this information, this medium contacted the Alkalo of the village, Pa Saidou Jallow, Mr Saidou Jallow, the VDC Chairman, the School Management Committee (SMC) and the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) respectively.
During a visit to the school grounds last week Wednesday, this reporter found furniture displaced outside the classrooms, and the school’s main gate was locked, and no student, teacher, or staff was found on the ground.
Throwing light on the incident that happened on Thursday, August 28, 2024, Haddy Faal, the Vice Chairperson of the Village Development Committee (VDC) recounted her experience with the PIU personnel, who denied her entry into the school premises.
Giving a brief background of how the school came about following the acquisition of the land from the community, she said they went to MOBSE to request a school and fortunately it did not take long before MRC – Holland Foundation sponsored and built them a school. She said the school became operational three years ago and will have Grade 4 when school resumes.
“The school is undergoing expansion; we are expecting to have an additional 24 classrooms. All these past years, no one claimed ownership of the land only for them to come now and say they are from the Sheriff Division, and are there for eviction,” she said.
She said she started mobilizing her committee members as others had already gone to work and others were on their respective errands. She added that in the process of mobilizing them, the PIU personnel started taking the furniture out of the classrooms.
“When they came to the school, they asked the pupils to leave the classrooms because they were going to remove all the materials in the classrooms as the place was no longer a school. They said the place is owned by someone,’’ she said.
She further explained that she was allowed entry into the school following the help of the mother’s club chair lady who identified her as a committee member of the VDC, adding that she found the Regional Education Director of Region 2 at the scene who asked them (Security Officers) whether they could conduct such exercise without any prior notice to the responsible authorities such as Headmaster, the Regional Office, the Ministry, the VDC or the Alkalo.
“We were there negotiating with them, but they said they won’t stop the exercise. After taking out all the furniture on the first floor, they proceeded to the second floor but when they went there to remove the furniture. Isatou Marigo, Jarra, and I said to them they would not unlock those classrooms and we were there pushing and pulling with them until they left the place,” she recalled.
She said that was the time when the youth came and forced their entry into the school grounds, culminating in the release of tear gas by the PIU officers and the youth also retaliated by pelting stones at them.
“The security officers then proceeded to the village throwing tear gas and arresting the youth; they even arrested some youth who were not even at the protest ground.”
According to her, the team was led by two individuals who claimed to be from the Sheriff Division.
“There was one Babucarr Loppy and another person who said destruction was his job. We then said to him if it is in the interest of only one individual that you are destroying the school then the whole village will be killed, but it will not happen,” she explained.
She expressed disappointment in how the PIU personnel handled matters because according to her, classes were already on when the Police arrived at the scene.
“While the teachers were trying to release the pupils to go home, the PIU officers came in full-force,” she disclosed.
“They (kids) were panicked. They ran home. I met some of them running saying that the PIU officers are at the school to kill people. They are kids and as such they don’t know what happened. Classes were supposed to continue on Thursday, September, 5th, 2024 but it has now been stopped because of this incident.”
Mr Amadou Wurry Barry, the Sinchu Sorrie, VDC Secretary, also recounted his experience with the officers and said he was among those arrested on the day of the incident.
Barry said a school staff told him some people were at the school and they claimed they were from the Sheriff Division and that they were there (t the school) to execute an eviction and demolition order.
“This was when I spoke to their leader Babucarr Loppy, and I asked him about their mission in the school, and he said they had an order and were there to execute it.
“I then told him, you are here for an eviction exercise without serving us any notice. I told him the community has an Alkalo, a VDC to whom the land in question is under, the school itself has a committee, and even the Ministry of Education was not served with any notice,” said the VDC Secretary.
He said he then appealed to him to stop the exercise and inform those who sent them that they could not execute the eviction.
“Because what you found here belongs to the community and we will not accept you evicting people from here. He accepted my plea, but after ten minutes, I received a call from one of the teachers at the school who informed me that they had sent the children home and were taking out the furniture. I then got back to Loppy and asked him whether they are proceeding with the eviction, and he said ‘yes’.
“When I reached the ground, I found that the place was full of young people, both boys and girls, men and women, and community elders, but all of them were denied entry into the school premises,” he said.
“So, I did not waste any time because I knew that they wouldn’t allow me to enter. I scaled the fence and the youth followed me. I went to tell them to halt their eviction exercise, but it fell on deaf ears because they did not listen to me. Some of the officers were still busy throwing the furniture outside the classrooms. I was arrested and handcuffed during the commotion, but I was ready for it because we knew how the construction of the school came about,” he expounded.
He said they never wanted the situation to deteriorate, but added, “they brought violence to us, and since they brought violence, we could not stand there as spectators and see them destroy our property”.
“What has happened is very unfortunate and uncalled for because they were very unprofessional in the way they handled the situation,” he said.
“There were some unwarranted circumstances because some of our VDC members and Mothers’ Club Chairlady both collapsed in the process. A member of the School Management Committee (SMC) was also denied entry into the school and was tear-gassed and he collapsed. All the Imams were present and were tear-gassed, but they refused to leave the scene because the crisis is a community issue,” Barry added.
According to him, the PIU officers polluted the entire village with tear gas, saying one would even feel the smoke in his or her compound.
“Even though I did not find the students on the ground, the effect it had on the children is terrifying because they were sent them home. The children will never forget that trauma.”
Narrating his encounter with the PIU officers, Mr Yankuba Njie, a member of the SMC, who is in his mid-seventies, said he was tear-gassed and arrested by the officers for protesting against the eviction exercise and the arrest of the youth. “I was tear-gassed and I collapsed in that instant, and I was handcuffed, thrown into the truck with the arrested youth because I said they will either free all of them or we will all die,” he revealed.
In an interview with this reporter, Pa Saidou Jallow, the Village Alkalo confirmed receiving the information of an eviction exercise at the school. He however said in the process, some members of the village came and said it [the eviction] wouldn’t happen, which he said resulted to a confrontation between the officers and the youth.
“Some PIU officer’s sustained minor injuries because the youth pelted them with stones and they also used tear gas to disperse the angry youth. The problem was resolved following the intervention of the District Chief, the National Assembly Member, and some community elders.”
He said part of the first phase of the school project centered on the construction of twelve (12) classrooms with toilets and a fence.
For him the eviction order emanated from the Chief of Sukuta and not from the High Court, adding he was never summoned to the High Court on this matter. He said he will do everything possible to ensure that there is a stay of execution of the order.
According to him, the school started operating three years ago with a land size of 120 metres by 200 metres including a football field.
“The dimension of the school is100 by 120 metres and the dimension of the football field 100 by 120m, the two were separated to avoid disruption of teaching and learning in the school,” he explains.
He appealed for calm and called on the government to intervene and involve the Sillah family in dialogue to solve the issue.
“It is indeed an issue in Sinchu Sorrie but it is beyond Sinchu, it is a national issue now. We are engaging relevant authorities to have the issue solved at the soonest possible time,” he clarified. The school is built by the state and the teachers there are posted and paid by the state. It is a state property,” he emphasised.
Mr Saidou Jallow, a colleague of the late Sulayman Sillah, said the case was already in court when the school was being constructed.
“The conflict is caused by the Alkalo because the issue was in court when he was allocating the land for a school,” he explained.
He did confirm that the latest judgment regarding the land was delivered by the High Court, adding this latest judgment came after the Alkalo appealed against the ruling delivered by the chief.
“He summoned us to the High Court and the case was ruled in our favour and he was asked to pay cost. He appealed against the judgment, but could not succeed.”
“I am not the one going to court; it is Saul Sillah and his family who are going to court. I am no longer following my compensation because the Alkalo has already asked the government not to compensate me,” he said.
Reacting to the recent incident at the school, Adama Jimba Jobe, Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE), expressed concern about what happened at the school, saying the issue could have been treated in a more professional manner considering there were students already in school.
He said his Ministry was never served with any ‘Eviction Notice’ nor were they summoned in any court of law with regards to the said school.
He however said they are gathering all the necessary information to establish what transpired in the said school as school will resume soon. He asked: “Where would the over 800 pupils go to, knowing that admission has almost passed?
Meanwhile, Foroyaa will publish the full details of the issues surrounding the said land in a subsequent edition.
