As claims and counter claims concerning the ownership of a disputed forest in the Wulli West District of the Upper River Region (URR) intensify, inhabitants of Taibatou have claimed that the disputed forest belongs to them as they have "authentic documents" to support their claim.
Meanwhile, Nyakoi Kerewan also claimed to be the rightful owners of the said forest. They also added that they have documents proving that the forest belongs to them.
The regional group tribunal court of URR presided over by Alhagie Jun Bah has ruled that the land in question belongs to Kerewan. The judgment was delivered on 8th of July 2012. However, the people of Taibatou claimed that the ruling that was made by the tribunal court was just 50 by 70 metres of land and the judgment doesn't include the forest in question.
Janko Jawneh, a native of Taibatou who spoke to The Point in an interview, said: "Lot of injustices have been meted on the people of Taibatou. He recalled that "several times the people of Kerewan attacked them and wounded their people almost on two occasions."
The Point has also obtained a letter from Taibatou village dated 6th July1999 and addressed to the Divisional Director, Department of URR with the title: 'We the undersigned family heads in the above name village, hereby request for authority from your exalted office to register and jointly manage our lands as a community forest park. The area land in question is located on the North Bank (Nyakoi) about 1 kilometre from the riverside'.
Another letter dated 26th July 2022 has been obtained by The Point and addressed to the president of Dumboto Community Forest Committee of Nyakoi Taibatou village with the caption 'suspension of technical support to Dumboto Community Forest Committee for the management of the proposed Dumboto Community forest.
The letter from the regional forestry department in URR reads; "In view of the above caption (sic), the regional forestry office wishes to inform you and the alkalo of Taibatou village of the suspension of forestry extension support services in the management of Dumboto Community forest which the community manage on behalf of the community. This decision was made as a result of the unresolved conflict with Nyakoi Kerewan over the traditional ownership of the proposed Dumboto Community Forest until this conflict is resolved."
"Therefore, if the people of Kerewan are claiming that if the government doesn't intervene and address the land dispute there is going to be bloodshed, then we are afraid. We want the government to protect us and our property. But let me make this very clear to the entire world that Taibatou village is no stranger."
"In fact there is a boundary between Taibatou farms and Kerewan farms. Surprisingly, when we got up and want to use our farms as community forest, the people of Kerewan also got up and claimed that the area belongs to them. They took the matter to the late Chief of Wulli Kandeh Kasseh Juwara. The chief told them that he (Kandeh Kasseh) has conducted an investigation into the matter and also consulted some people who knew the history of the area. The chief told them that from where 'Wasda' is present, belongs to Jawnoh Kunda family of Taibatou," he said.
"The chief further asked five people from each community to swear to the Qur'an that the said land belong to them. Unfortunately, all the five people from Taibatou swore to the Qur'an while only two people from Kerewan swore. This should tell you that the land belongs to us. Again, after the said judgement, Jatto Sillah, one time minister of Forestry during Jammeh time, and who is also a native of Kerewan gave us an acceptance letter about the application we wrote concerning the said forest."
Commenting on the judgement that was made by the district tribunal court in 2012 and headed by Chief Jun Bah, Mr. Jawneh said: "The judgement was not transparent and it was not held at a neutral ground. I can tell you that the Alkalo of Taibatou refuses to accept the verdict of the said judgment on the grounds that he was not informed earlier that the chiefs were going to give the judgement on that particular day in 2012. We also have documents to prove that the said forest belongs to us."
Jawneh further added: "Another judgement was also made by the chief of the area concerning the said land problem which is 50 meters by 70 meters. The chief in the area also pleaded with us to leave that area with them due to the fact that it's not a large area of land. I can clearly tell you that the forest belongs to us. The crisis that they are bringing will not be accepted by us," he emphasised
Jawneh claimed that the people of Kerewan are going with "false documents" under the pretext that the forest belongs to them.
He added that even the Sketch plan that the people of Kerewan are having is not authentic and it's not from the Physical Planning Department," he concluded.
Karalang Jawneh, a native of Kerewan who once spoke to The Point on the matter, was quoted as saying: "This is something that has surprised me so much. Kerewan is the village that welcomed Taibatou here. It was our village and Madina that welcomed them. In fact, they were given farms by us and Sutukonding. From where our village is and up to the river side, we don't share it with any community. Surprisingly, some years back, they just got up and said they want to do forest in our land. We were not even aware at the time they were processing the documents claiming that the land belongs to them and that they wanted to do it as a forest."
"When the problem of ownership of the land started to escalate, the seven chiefs in URR sat over the matter. We have documents indicating that the land belongs to us. Again, all the seven chiefs in their judgment unanimously agreed that the land belongs to us. The judgment was based on the fact that our village got evidence while Taibatou didn't have any evidence to support their ownership claim," he posited."
"In fact, to further justify that the said forest belongs to us, Kerewan village was even fined by the Forestry Department in URR when the said forest was set on fire. This clearly tells you that the forest is ours. Therefore, we are urging the government to evict them from our forest because they are trespassing. Again, before a village is certified by the Forestry Department that a certain forest belongs to them, they must have signatures of neighbouring villages. I can confirm to you that our village has it but Taibatou doesn't."
The chief of Sandu District Jun Bah, who was the president of the district tribunal court in 2012 which presided over the land dispute case, said: "When we were doing the judgement the issue of the forest didn't come out, but i can clearly tell you that, during the said judgeemnt, we made it clear that the land and the surrounding belong to the people of Kerewan," Bah told our reporter in an interview when he was contacted for comments on this matter.
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Chief Bah further continues: "We ruled that from Kerewan Badala and up to Kerewan village belong to Kerewan itself. However, let me also repeat that during the time of this judgement, the issue of the forest didn't surface," he conclude.
Ebrima Juwara, the chief of Wulli East District who was also contacted for comments, said: "The judgement that was delivered by the late Chief Kandeh Kasseh gave ownership of the said forest to Taibatou. However, when the four chiefs sat over the case, we made ruling that starting from Patenene to Tamba Kumba Kiling, the entire area belongs to the people of Kerewan.
"We want the government to quickly intervene in the area and address the matter with a view to ensure peace within the neighbouring villages."
Alieu Joof, former regional lands officer in URR who prepared the sketch plan, was also contacted for comments and he said: "The sketch plan that I prepared was a request from a community level and that's why it doesn't have a government letter-head or stamp. The community of Kerewan requested me to help them with a sketch plan as per the chief judgement which I made for them. However, I didn't do it in my capacity as the regional land officer."
