SBEC Robotic Team Pulls 2nd In World Championship

Photo: Abdoukarim and the Team 

By Ousman A. Marong

Gambia’s SBEC International School team of 3 boys won the second position in the World Robofest Championship in the United States (US), defeating the United States, Mexico, Egypt, South Korea and dozens of others.

The “Acrobat” team of three boys and one teacher from SBEC International School in the Northern Region of The Gambia dominated the 10 broad and challenging categories of the championship held from February 15 to 24 at Texas Technological University (TTU).

The categories include Complete Robotic Missions, Exhibition (Show off projects), Vision Centric Challenge (Develop robots to solve problems using cameras), Unknown Mission Challenge (Surprise missions), Robot Arts (Robotics music, dance, and arts competition), BottleSumo (Pushing bottle or opponents of a table), RoboParade (Parade of robots), Camps, Carnival and WISER, a conference on STEM education through robotics.

The team from The Gambia was able to build a robot that arranged boxes according to a binary number they were given during the competition. They also completed their missions successfully.

Team Acrobat was the only team from The Gambia and participated in the world robofest Championship in the US for the first time.

The West African country’s team of 3 boys including one teacher SBEC International School in the Gambia came 2nd out of the overall 52 teams in the division. The teams qualified from the national championship level called “the Robotics Inspired Science Education (RISE) competition” organized by MRC Robotics Academy Foundation. They beat several teams before qualifying for the World Robofest Championship.

Robofest has been organized since 1999 to offer students the opportunity to master principles of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) as well as Computer Science (CS), communication, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem solving skills while designing, constructing, and programming robots.

Since Robofest started, over 25,000 students have competed from 14 U.S. States, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, England, France, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Lebanon, Macau, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, and South Korea. The teams compete in the junior, senior and college divisions.

All registered participants received medals and personalized certificates from the Robotics Academy Foundation.

Speaking to reporters at the International airport on yesterday, Coach Hassan Sillah, thanked SBEC International School and parents who entrusted him to travel with their children to the US.

“It wasn’t easy when we went to Texas to complete in the robotic competition. We were the only team that didn’t even have an idea of what the competition was all about;” he explained.

He revealed that upon arrival his team members were bit nervous but he (Hassan Sillah) had the trust and confidence in them that they can do it.

Photo: Team SABEC received by the principal at The Airport 

Abdoukarim Demba, a student and a participant complaint about the short time given to them to complete building their robots.

Mr. Mamadou Colley, Principal of SBEC International School described the team’s victory as a victory to the entire nation.

He encouraged the kids to engage themselves in science-related subjects.

Parisienne Restaurant Rejects CEO Runaway Over Death Of Two Employees

Photo: Lamin and Sainey

 By Ousman A. Marong

 Ibrahmi Pl of La Parisieene Restaurant has maintained that the Chief Executive Officer CEO has not runaway on the death of two employees who were trapped inside a suckaway.

This rejection came at a time when he (Ibrahmi Pl) has assigned two Gambian youths to drain his filled suck-away who died inside the suck-away as a result of bad inhalation and the heat inside.

La Parisieene, is a Lebanese Restaurant situated along the Kairaba Avenue just opposite the American Embassy.

“I am the CEO of La Parisieene Restaurant, there is no CEO at La Parisieene apart from me and here I am talking to you, so how can I be on the run,” he quizzed.

According to him he has his own contractor who normally cleans up his suck-away any time it is filled.

“The contractor came to my office and discussed on the amount and I paid him and left for other errands. Upon arrival at my work place I met a group of people when I asked what was going on and I was told two people died in the suck-away. I want to sacrifice myself to enter in the suck-away in order to help them out, but people held my hand,” he explained.

 He said it was from there they called the Gambia Fire and Sea Rescue Service (GFSRS) who came to help remove the dead bodies from the suck-away.

“I together with official from the Gambia Fire and Sea Rescue Services (GFSRS) transported the corpses to Sharab Health Center in Kanifing where they were adhere to and were given back to their families for proper burial,” he said.     

Sainey Kanteh 24 from Wuli Ja Kunda in the Upper River Region (URR) and Lamin Manneh 23 from Niamina Village in Central River Region (CRR) where the duo who died inside the suck-away due to inhaling bad Adour and  the heat in the manhole.

The tragic event occurred on Friday 7 February 2020 at La Parisiseene Restaurant at Pipeline opposite the American Embassy.

According to eyewitness the duo were assigned by the manager of La Parisienne restaurant to drain off the waste. One of the sources said even though the tragic incident happened they still carried on their normal business.

An eyewitness close to the restaurant has it that Ibrahmi Pl is not the CEO at La Parisienne Restaurant.

“You know Ibrahmi is not the CEO of La Parisienne. The CEO is one Ali and he is currently out of town. He supposed to travel on Thursday, but had to cancel his trip due to the tragic incident. He traveled on Friday,” said the witness.

When asked by this reporter whether the CEO is called Ali Baba but could not confirmed.quizzed our reporter, “No is not Ali Baba, I do not know his first name,” replied the witness.

Photo: Bakary Conteh

On his part, Bakary Kanteh, father to one of the deceases said “This kind of a job is not my son’s job. My son is a businessman.”

He said he heard reports that his son Sainey Kanteh who first entered in the ditch through a narrow hole was suffocated to dead by intense heat and bad ordour.

Photo: The Manhole

“As soon as he gets inside, he was not talking nor responding to questions from Lamin Manneh. Lamin too decided to follow him inside to see what went wrong and they both die,” he explained.

He said the police have conducted investigation at the place and has taken photos in order to establish the cause of death of the duo.

“There were no further investigation so as to ascertain the cause of the death on Sainey and Lamin. All we could do was to request for our deceases in order to give them a befitting Muslim burial,” he remarked.

At the time of going to press effort were made in reaching to GFSRS for comment, but remain futile.

A call was made to the police PRO, but we were told that he is current not in town.

This is a developing story and News Bite will keep you update.

Slain Journalist’s Sister Resigns From Police

Photo: Adama Manneh

 
By Ousman A. Marong

Ms. Adama Manneh, the younger sister of the slain Gambian Journalist, Ebrima Manneh alias “Chief Manneh” has resigned from The Gambia Police Force (GPF) as a police officer.

Ms. Manneh who has worked in the police for several years, broke the news of her resignation on her Facebook page on Sunday, 19 January 2020.

“I am no more a police officer, I have discharge voluntarily,” she revealed.

When contacted by this reporter as to the reason (s) for her resignation which she said was a “personal” matter.

“My resignation is personal,” she responded.

Family sources revealed that Adama has traveled to Spain where she currently lived.

It could be recalled that Ebrima Manneh alias “Chief Manneh” was a former employee of The Daily Observer Newspaper who was arrested by state security agents at his office in July 2006. He has whisked away in the presence of his co-workers at the office premises. He was secretly held in police detention from different police stations across the country.

Since then his whereabouts were not known until after the change of government when the government of President Adama Barrow established the Truth Commission. It was after the establishment of the Truth Commission where Gambians came to realize that Chief Ebrima was dead through testimonies from alleged “junglers’ in the person of Malick Jatta.

“The last time I saw Chief Ebrima Manneh was when we took Ousman Rambo- Jatta to Sarra Ngai Police,” said Malick Jatta.

Malick Jatta was a member of President Yahya Jammeh’s hit-squad known as “Junglers”

“Blame Coalition Leaders Not 3 Years Jotna” Says OJ

Photo: OJ Jallow

By Ousman A. Marong

The former leader of the Peoples’ Progressive Party (PPP), Omar Amadou Jallow alias OJ has said that the Coalition leaders are to be blamed on the issue of 3 or 5 years mandate of President Adama Barrow.

According to him, Gambians should blame the coalition leaders and not  “3 Years Jotna” Movement.

“We (Coalition leaders) are to blame and not “3 Years Jotna movement. President Adama Barrow was not the architect of the Coalition in 2016. He (Barrow) was never part of the executive and has not attended a single meeting organized by the executive,” he remarked.

The veteran politician made these revelations on Taranga FM’s Current Affairs radio program anchored by Dr. Ismaila Sisay.

When asked about his thoughts on the arbitrary closure of the two radio stations namely Home Digital FM and King FM plus the clamping down on journalists, he responded: “the matter is at the court and me, therefore, want to limit myself on the issue”.

He added that many Gambians misunderstood his comments regarding the demolition of mosques in public places.

“Gambians misunderstood me. I never said neither did I encourage the demolition of mosques in public places. What I said was the sense in building mosques at government institutions when you have people praying for only one daily prayer and that is the Zuhr prayers,” he asserted.

According to him, the country’s late President Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara had never ordered the killing of any Gambian during the 1981 coup.

“Sir Dawda had never ordered the killing of any Gambian but it was Kukoi Samba Sanyang who contested and lost the National Assembly Election in Foni and decided to collide with the “Field Forces” in order to topple the democratically elected government of Sir Dawda,” he adduced.

Meanwhile, he urged Gambians to be law-abiding and adhere to the rule of law.