The Gambia government has demolished a business center previously owned by one of the nation's most prosperous businessmen, Momodou Sumareh, afte he had allegedly agreed to be compensated with a plot of land elsewhere.

Although the terms of the agreement between Mr Sumareh and President Jammeh and The Gambia government remain undisclosed, it is clear that the President had previously threatened to arrest and imprison the businessman if he refused to relinquish the property to the state.

In February 2009, President Jammeh advised tribal Serahule elders to talk with Mr. Sumareh, a Serahule bussinessman resident in the United States, to either abandon his insistence of retaining the property located at Sting Corner, along the Banjul Highway, or risk going to jail any time he sets foot in the country.

The President, our sources said, claimed the Department of State for construction had intended to construct a new road, which he argued, cannot be done without demolishing Mr. Sumareh's business center. He added that Sumareh had asked for a compensation of D8 million, but when the state wanted to pay the amount, the businessman allegedly changed his mind, and decided to hire a lawyer to contest the matter in court.

Whatever the terms of the agreement were, it is crystal clear that the businessman was coerced into letting go of his property, and as a result, M Sumareh & Sons business center located at Sting Corner, on the outskirts of the capital Banjul, was demolished last week by men with heavy machineries believed to be acting on orders from the President.

"The entire structure was levelled to the ground by bulldozers", our reporter in Banjul said on Sunday.

Senegambia News made efforts to locate Mr Sumareh for comments but to no avail.

In June 2004, Mr Sumareh's brother, Alhaji Sumareh, spoke at a presidential campaign (Meet the People's Tour) and refuted speculations of his brother's intent to contest the 2006 polls.