Members of The Gambia National Transport Union (GNTU), led by their president, Abdoulie Sosseh, yesterday stormed the Daily Observer’s offices in Bakau, to complain of what they called mis-collection of their union membership dues by The Gambia National Transport Control Association (GNTCA).

In an interview with the Daily Observer, Ousman Drammeh, vice President of The Gambia National Transport Union, said that a new Chef de garage at Tanji car park was selected under the umbrella of his union.This move by the Tanji garage committee, according to Mr Drammeh, was done to be able to control the movement of vehicles and the dues paid by drivers.

He said: “For so many years, we have been demanding to know from The Gambia National Transport Control Association how many tickets were sold to drivers, but to no avail. We also have been demanding an audit statement of report but also to no avail”.

He added that “Yesterday, members at Tanji car park introduced an out ticket and passenger tickets system. Few hours later, the President of The Gambia National Transport Control Association, Mumini Sey and others came to stop the process”.

For his part, Abdoulie Sosseh, President of the Gambia National Transport Union, said a new Chef de garage was selected at Tanji car park and he was invited to witness the start of their work.

“While on my way to the Tanji, I received a call from my Vice president, Mr Drammeh, who was then at Bakoteh police station and asked me to join him there. I then drove to meet him at the station.

At the police station, they demanded to see our permit which enabled us to convene the meeting at the car park. After some hours of discussion, we were invited to the Bundung NIA office together with Mumine Sey. Again at the Bundung NIA station we had long hours of argument.

The NIA officer advised that since The Gambia National Transport Control Association were the first to start operation before our union at the Tanji carpark, “we should go back to the authorities to get permission to operate or get another decision because they said two seperate groups who are rivals cannot operate at the same car park.

They said only one should operate there; either the association or our union. The NIA officer added that since the association was the first to start operation at Tanji garage nobody can remove them except if we have the mandate from the authorities”.

Asked if they have the mandate of the authorities, Mr Sosseh said: “what mandate? Our mandate comes from the people, not the authorities. It’s the membership that gave us the authority to operate.”

Muhammed Touray, a driver at Tanji car park said: “we are not happy with the performance of the old Chef de garage and this prompted us (the carpark committee) to select a new Chef de garage to take care of our welfare”.

Hassan Bojang the secretary to the Serrekunda Gambia National Transport Union, Serrekunda Branch, alleged that GNTCA had collected money which belong them. “This cannot continue. We have to put a mechanism to be able to control our daily dues. This triggered us to select a new Chef de garage that we can trust.”