By Buba Gagigo
The Managing Director of Jah Oil Company, Momodou Hydara, has denied claims that his company dug graves to build a police station.
” [when] the IGP Jobe was alive, we had an engagement and one of them were, we had several projects at jah Oil Company for the Gambia Police Force. And among them [include] this particular project [building a police station] in Banjul. So he appealed to us, if we can help build a police station in this area because he cited so many important reasons. One of them is that the place is prone to so many crimes and the dangers in the traffic” MD Hydara explained.
The local petroleum giant MD further said following the death of IGP Jobe , they were one day summoned by the current IGP Ablie Sanyang whom he said asked them if they would fulfil the promises they made to his predecessor.
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“We were summoned by the current IGP [Ablie Sanyang]. In that meeting all he wanted was to see, if the pledges we made with the Gambia Police Force still stand. Because he understands that there were so many things we pledged in the past. We told him yes [it] is not for IGP Jobe, [but it] is for the Gambia Police Force. As long as the police is there, the projects still stand and this particular project was part of it,” Hydara said.
Hydara added that the site that they are building their petrol Station was not allocated to them by Government as claimed, but they bought it from the property owner, Constance Wadner Enhorning.
“We are building our own place in a property we bought from a private individual called Ms. Wadner. When we negotiated the price, they were represented by their lawyer [Lawyer Ida Drammeh]. When we agreed on the price we bought this property and started our project. But before we even started the project we had all approval from line ministries.” The manager said.
On whether the site they are building the police station is a grave yard, the petroleum company boss said their investigations revealed that the site in question was a buffer zone.
“We went and did our private investigatons and dug out files from physical planning to actually see the material evidence that the place was a grave yard, but unfortunately…we discovered that the particular place….was a buffer zone,” he concluded.
Kerr Fatou’s efforts to reach the BCC and police spokespersons for comments were unsuccessful
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