By Kebba Ansu Manneh
The late morning of 7 November 2018, specifically at 10.39AM, was the last time Binta Sarge laid claims to a peaceful bode her family called home at Kotu in the suburb of Sere Kunda. The compound his domicile to her mother and her five other siblings: two boys and three sisters. She bought the compound, in 2012, from the Sheriff’s Office of the High Court in Banjul for D600, 000 (six hundred thousand dalasis). However, Mrs. Sarge and her family are currently homeless because they received eviction orders to vacate the property. There eviction, she alleged, was executed by the Sheriff’s Office of the High Court in Banjul that sold her the compound the office knew might have legally or not belonged to someone else. She said that she bought the property about six years ago from one Landing Sanneh of the same Sheriff’s Division that evicted her from the property she’d rightful and legally bought from them.
The eviction she said has disrupt their quiet and peaceful lives. “We are in a terrible situation, we are homeless I can tell you. My mum is currently sleeping with my neighbors, but I cannot tell where my sisters and brothers are staying, maybe with friends I can’t tell,” Mrs. Sarge remorselessly told The Times.
According to her, in 2012 while on a trip with her husband and children from Sweden, she went to the Sheriff’s Office of the High Court after hearing that a compound was up for sale at Kotu Layout by that office. She ended up buying the property as a home for her family. Documents purportedly from the High Court bearing a signature above the word “Chief Justice” reviewed by The Times indicate that the property came under dispute in 2014 but the High Court ruled in favor of Ms. Sarge against one Amadou Tijan Jallow.
Speaking as she sobbed intermittently, Mrs. Sarge narrated her ordeal to The Times that she bought that compound in Kotu so that her family could have a place they can call home. She said she also wanted to avoid the hassle of renting in Banjul and suburbs while on holiday with her Swedish husband and children.
Elaborating on the disruption to her family, Ms. Sarge flabbergasted. “I can’t still believe that we are homeless, I can’t explain this to our kids even though they keep asking me when we shall go to our compound. They don’t like it here (the Lodge), we are used to spending our holidays in our compound, it’s there they know, they don’t it like here,” Ms. Sarge said as she disclosed her children’s displeasure with the lodge they moved in at Kerr Serign.
Mrs. Sarge recalled that it was on the 8th of November, 2018 while in Sweden when her family contacted her about the dilemma they found themselves in when officials of the Sheriff’s Office stormed their compound with securities to evict them forcefully, adding that it was only after fervent appeal when the family was allowed to pick some of their valuable personal items.
“It was the 8th of November 2018 when my family calls me to inform me about what they were going through. I immediately flew to Banjul from Sweden to fix the problem to no avail; and I have to go back and come again in less than two weeks in efforts to solving the problem. This is too painful because I bought this compound from the Sheriff, and now again it’s the Sheriff that evicted my family and made us homeless,” Mrs. Sarge disclosed.
She told The Times that this latest development has caused unquantifiable damage to her married, narrating that her Swedish husband is suspicious of her for playing what amounts to a game. She added that she bought the property from the Sheriff Division believing that state institution will not sell a property that was in dispute or any other person could lay a claim on.
“I’ m really devastated, my husband can’t believe that this can happen in The Gambia. I can notice that he is both worried and suspicious of me because he is seeing the whole thing as a game and honestly this situation is causing a grave problems in my married”, Ms. Sarge stated. She said upon her coming to the country she made many attempts to solve this situation to no avail, adding that her family’s situation could better be described as ‘homeless’ at a time some of their children are enrolled in school.
“I made many attempts to amicably solve the issue with the Sheriff to no avail, I visited Landing Sanneh who was the Sheriff at the time, but it seems he did not care about our predicament. I also tried to contact a lawyer but still no avail,” a frustrating situation that is causing her great pain and sorrow.
The Times reporter contacted the Sheriff’s Office at the High Court in Banjul to obtain their side of the story. The Sheriff said he could not talk about the issue because it is before the court. To verify the Sheriff’s claim, The Times enquired at the Office of Registry of the Court where the records indicate that the case has not been filed by any lawyer. The Times has obtain evidence that collaborate Ms. Sarge’s narration that she had made an advanced payment of D75,000 to a certain lawyer at Moses B. Johnson-Richards and Associates who is yet to file the case with the courts. The Times could not verify whether the case was file at the court but that it did not reflect in the registry due to administrative delay, or that if Ms. Sarge’s attorney did not file the case at all. All efforts to reach out to the Law Firm was not successful.
The Times reached out to Landing Sanneh, Judicial Secretary and former Sheriff of High Court, who was the Sheriff at the time Ms. Sarge bought the compound from the Sheriff’s Division. Mr. Sanneh refused to comment on the matter and referred this reporter back to the Sheriff’s Office. Mr. Sanneh said he knew nothing about the issue because it was the office that dealt with clients not him as a person, insisting that any further questions should be referred to the current Sheriff not him.
When The Times put to him whether he is aware of the homelessness of Ms. Sarge and family, and whether it’s true that Ms. Sarge bought that compound in Kotu from the Sheriff’s Office at the time he led that department, he declined to speak but only referred the reporter to the Sheriff’s Office. Mr. Sanneh was not also in position to explain whether it is lawful for the Sheriff’s Office that sold a compound to a person only to evict that individual from the property she legally acquired without any compensation or admission of wrong by the state institution.
Reluctantly responding to The Times, Mr. Sanneh said, “let her go to the court to claim her compound if she owns it, it’s only the court that can settle the matter.”
In her conclusion, Ms. Sarge appealed to The Gambia Government and the Chief Justice to intervene in her situation for a final redress.