By MS Bah
The youths of Brufut Village this morning descended on a land area designated to the village as recreation center but was purportedly given to land-grabbing Yahya Jammeh over the years. The youths who came in their tens cleared half of the land and promised to go back there next week Sunday.
The youths led by the national assembly member, Hon Babagalleh Jallow claimed the purpose of clearing the land is to enable the sports committee play their upcoming summer football jamboree locally called Nawettan on the said land.
Hon Babagalleh Jallow said, “We want to use this place to play our Nawettan because we are aware of the amount of damage we cause to the primary school and also the health center. On many occasions the headmaster and chairman of the Parent Teachers Association served us notice to stop playing Nawettan on their ground but because we have no other option we negotiate but now we really want to respect that request.”
He added, “I am hundred per cent sure that the youths will use the field to play their Nawettan this time around because the Minister of local government and land have given us the go ahead to use the land in the meantime as a football field.”
Hon Jallow pledges that he is and will remain committed to any genuine course that the young people are engaged in his constituency.
Kebba Manneh, a member of the task force set up in Brufut to create an enabling environment for the people of Brufut said they mobilised the youths to come out in their numbers to salvage the land that was the once given to the youths of Brufut.
He said they have in mind plans to build a multi purpose center in this area knowing that it is strategically located and can create recreation for the youth of Brusubi, Tranquil, Wullingkama, Ghana Town, Brufut and possibly Tanji or Bijilo if need be.
“One of the reason why The Gambia has lots idle youths is because young people don’t have a place to play. This is what we want to give to the younger generation of Brufut.”
Kebba Manneh added that the elders of Brufut are behind them but also called on the youths to come out in their numbers next week to participate in the clearing.
For her part Mariama Saine, a native of Brufut and one of the few ladies that turned up at the place said, “The land has been and is still ours so we are going to claim it because it is a new Gambia where people can claim what is rightfully their. So it’s not like we are coming to take someone’s property but ours.”
Saine called on the sports committee to inform the teams to come out in their numbers next week hence the place will benefit them more.
It could be recalled that four years ago, the youths of Brufut cleared the said area but left it unused only to be used to cultivate groundnuts for the then president Yahya Jammeh.
But with the new dispensation, the youths are hopeful that what is rightfully theirs will be given back to them so that they can allow classes to go on normally at the Brufut Lower Basic School during Nawettan and to allow patients and nurses at the health center work and rest in peace. The land was taken and given to the former president Jammeh.