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By Pierre Njie
Renowned Gambian journalist and activist Fatou Jaw Manneh and 15 others, mainly youths have been charged with obstructing a police officer, contrary to the Laws of The Gambia. This information was confirmed by the police spokesperson ASP Lamin Njie today.
PRO Njie said the accused persons who were briefly held at the Brusubi Police Station, were granted bail yesterday while further police actions continue.
The youths, who are all natives of Sukuta, were arrested on Tuesday afternoon during a demolition exercise at Sukuta-Salagi by representatives of the Physical Planning Department at the Ministry of Local Government and Lands, who were escorted by the armed unit of the Gambia Police Force, (the PIU).
The said land, according to many, was a reserved allocated for the youths of Sukuta for future development purposes.
According to the police PRO Lamin Njie, the police got order from the court to stop the angry youths from carrying out their plan in demolishing the land designated to government. “We (the police) must make sure we go by the directives given to us by the court and we must abide by regional right-of-passage laws,” he remarked.
He said the police were pleading to their leaders to stop the youths from demolishing the area and they (the youths) resisted and decided to launch an attack on the police who were on the ground.
“This resulted into a tussle between the youths and the police in which the police decided to fire tear gas to dispatch the angry youths,” Njie told The Digest News.