The roadside canteen owners in Jarra Soma are dissatisfied with the council's eviction order given to them recently. According to Mr. Kasim Fadera, an affected businessman, they (the shopkeepers) were issued with a notice to vacate the land.

The vacation notice was given to them on the 13 June 2007, and it was signed by the CEO of Mansakonko Area Council. The third paragraph of the letter stated that "the area is going to be used as a bank, which is more of a national development issues." Mr. Fadera said, they felt that the council had fooled them by writing a notice to them indicating that the land will be issued to a bank; that on the whole the land was to be given to another individual businessman.

When contacted, the governor of L.R.R Modou Soma Jobe said he was the one who approved that move, adding "the new owner will build a supermarket on the land." He denied that the land was sold for two hundred and twenty-five thousand dalasis, but failed to say how much they sold it for. He said that temporal canteens can be taken back any time for other purposes. When our reporter put it to him that the shopkeepers said they were on this land since 1989 and had shown receipts dating from that year to 2007, governor Jobe maintained that that is not an excuse for them to refuse eviction. Efforts to speak to the CEO and Chairman Mansankonko Area Council proved futile.