Johan Camara, a Swedish landscaping engineer and his wife, Mariama Camara, last Tuesday, filed a civil suit against a Gambian-based English company called Property Partnership Agency and Jackie Burdock, the second defendant, for the recession of an assignment contract dated December 26, 2006.

The Swede is claiming a refund of D650,000, being the amount paid to the second defendant (Jackie Burdock) for a plot of land at Bijilo, the payment of D48,500 being the cost of materials for construction on the said land, labour and transportation, and D50,000 for damages. He also wants a 22 per cent interest on any amount awarded from November 1 to the day of judgment.

Narrating his claim before Senior Magistrate M’Bai, Johan Camara, the first complainant, asserted that in December 2006, he went to the Property Partnership Agency to buy a plot of land. He said he was shown a number of plots by an employee of the company following a discussion. According to him, he preferred to take the one at Bijilo, owned by Jackie Burdock.

“I was then taken on a tour of the land three times with my wife and friend, Wuyeh Camara,” he said. He recalled that this was followed by an agreement with Jackie to buy the land and an agreement document was then prepared. He said he and his wife made a payment of D650,000 before they left The Gambia and made the full payment later, after which they were given a serial number for him to carry out a search on the land. He said it revealed to him that Jackie Burdock was the owner of the land.

Mr Camara said he returned to The Gambia in November, 2007, and barely a week into the construction work at the land, a strange man came and told him that the land belonged to his friend and that he should stop the work.

“I then called my lawyer, who confirmed to me that I am the rightful owner,” Mr Camara told the court. He said that the man kept coming to the site insisting that he (Camara)  was not the rightful owner of the land.

He said he contacted his lawyer again who later contacted one Amadou Jallow of the Property Partnership Agency who came to the site a week later and told him that they had shown him the wrong land.

“I told him that if that was the case, then they had to give me my money back but I was told that I had to wait until Jackie returned from the UK,” he recalled.

However, he said, he has not seen both the first and second defendants and had tried to meet them but to no avail.

He told the court that he was later assigned another plot which also belongs to someone else. He said he then tried to call all those involved in the transaction to discuss the issue but to no avail. He said even his lawyer contacted the parties to convince them that that was not the professional way to do business.

Camara concluded that as a result of the case, he is now forced to stay in The Gambia and is currently paying a rentage of D15,000 per month.

The case was then adjourned for continuation.