The spokesperson of The Gambia police force Superintendent Lamin Njie said Tuesday’s disturbances, which left five people arrested at Manduar Mandinka village was orchestrated by the villagers in that locality. “Very well because they were the people because this whole thing happened at Manduar Mandinka area. Five people have been arrested at Manduar Mandinka. They have been arrested from the Manduar Mandinka and they are currently helping the police in the investigation,” Njie told Freedom Newspaper in a late evening interview on Tuesday.
Njie said more arrests are expected to be made, but for now five people are helping the police in their probe.
“The numbers might be more than five. For now, to confirm, we can say five people are under police custody. The situation has been under monitoring, might be some more arrests has been made, possibly we can confirm that tomorrow. But about five has been arrested,” he said.
The two neighboring communities had a row on Tuesday morning over the issue of voter registration. Manduar Mandinka and Manduar Wollof are two separate communities with different ethnicity. The former is claiming to be the original descendants of the village.
Villagers of Manduar Mandinka do not recognize the Alkalo of Manduar Wollof as the legitimate Alkalo of that locality. They claimed that both Manduars should be headed by one Alkalo, which is resident at the Mandinka Manduar.
The Alkalo for Manduar Wollof Baboucarr Secka hasn’t been recognized by the villagers of Manduar Mandinka as the legitimate Akalo of Manduar Wollof. The other villagers wouldn’t allow him to attest other voters to obtain voters’ cards.
Consequently, this has occasioned the fight between the two communities. The IEC’s voter registration drive was disrupted. Teargas was used to dispel the villagers.
“The registration couldn’t take place at the end of the day, so, this was why the police deployed some officers, the police intervention unit to keep the peace, and also restore normalcy. During the course of this five of the youths at the Manduar Mandinka area got arrested,” Spokesman Njie told me.
The villagers of Manduar Wollof have rallied behind their village head. They said the Alkalo was legally appointed by the government to head the community.
Alkalo Baboucarr Secka said he was appointed Akalo in September 2012 by the Governor of the West Coast Region. He has documentation to backup his claims. His villagers have rallied support behind him.
“The police are also engaging with the other stakeholders such as the Independent Electoral Commission and other relevant stakeholders to find an amicable solution to the situation. As we speak, a suggestion has been made, to put up another registration center at the Manduar wollof area,” said spokesman Njie.
The police spokesman has called on the villagers of Manduar Mandink to exercise restraint. He warns that any attempt to disrupt the peace wouldn’t be tolerated.
“We want to send information to the general public especially to people around the area, in Manduar area because we got information that some people have said they will even go to the second registration center whenever it is being created to go and also disrupt the process. So, this is something that we definitely want to call on the people of Manduar especially the Mandinka area to exercise restraint and allow process to continue as far as the registration is concerned,” said Njie.
The IEC voter registration is expected to end on July 10.
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