Senior
defence counsel Antouman Gaye yesterday challenged the credibility of the
vehicles’ paper work by the tenth prosecution witness (PW10), Alassan Ndoye,
which were tendered in court and marked as exhibits.
Counsel Gaye was continuing his cross-examination of Alassan Ndoye, in the trial involving the former Secretary General and Minister for Presidential Affairs, Momodou Sabally, before Justice Amadi of the Special Criminal Court in Banjul.
“I put it to you that the accused never asked you to bring any one from America to The Gambia for the Roots Homecoming Festival,” counsel challenged him.
“The accused asked me to bring people from the US for the Roots Homecoming Festival,” said the witness.However, Justice Amadi said bringing people from Washington had no relevance in the case, and that it was the charge before him which was relevant in the case.
He said that when both counsel were addressing him at the end of the case, they would do so based on the charge before him.
“When you were bringing the vehicles into The Gambia, did the customs give you a customs bill of entry into The Gambia?” counsel asked.
“The Gambia customs did not give me customs bill of entry into The Gambia,” said the witness.
“I put it to you that you did not ask for anything from the customs,” said counsel.
“Yes, I did ask,” answered the witness.
“Look at exhibit P7 and P8, which you refer to as paper work, attestation, agreement. The document did not show the name of the buyer,” counsel further challenged him.
“If it had been filled, it would indicate the name of the buyer,” answered the witness.
“What about the price of the vehicles?” counsel asked.
“If the document had been filled it would contain the price of the vehicle,” he answered.
“I put it to you that exhibit P7 and P8 had been made up for the purpose of the trial,” said counsel.
“It has not been made up for the trial because PW1 mentioned it at the NIA, and the NIA had been given copies,” said the witness.
“I am putting it to you that somebody came from the NIA to testify, but did not mention the document,” said counsel.
“I was not here,” replied the witness.
“You will agree with me that 99 per cent of the document is blank,” said counsel.
“Yes, because the information needed from the accused was not obtained from him,” answered the witness.
“I am putting it to you that there was absolutely no information needed from the accused,” said counsel.
“Yes, information was needed from him to close the deal,” said the witness.
“You told the court that PW1 came to Dakar and informed you that they were holding the vehicles for collateral for the three projects,” counsel further challenged him.
“I said so, but the way I said it was different from the way the lawyer said it,” said the witness.
“I put it to you that your answer is not true: the accused did not send PW1 to you much more for a project worth billions of what we don’t know about,” said counsel.
“I am not sure, but all communications between me and the accused were through PW1; so anything he told me I would believe that,” said the witness.
At that juncture, senior counsel Gaye said he was applying for an adjournment on the grounds that the accused was going to appear before the lower court in an hour.
DPP Barkun said the witness has been going to court to testify for the third week, and he had business to take care of in the US.
Senior Counsel Gaye said the interest of the witness could not override the interest of justice.
Justice Amadi asked the witness to come back on Wednesday to finish the cross-examination since he was already in the country.
He said he would give senior counsel Gaye up to Wednesday to finish cross-examining the witness and if he could not finish, he (Amadi) would stop him.
