Justice
Sainabou Wadda Cisse of the High Court in Banjul yesterday called on the State
Counsel prosecuting criminal matters to come to court prepared and not to come
and take dates and goes to sleep.
Justice
Cisse made this declaration while presiding over the criminal matter involving
the State against Ada Gaye, Fafanding Fatajo, Omar Jammeh, Dr Abdou Ceesay and
Foday Jadama.
The
court observed that neither the accused persons nor the State Counsel
prosecuting the case was present in court.
When
the matter came up, a State Counsel from the Attorney General’s Chambers
announced his representation for the state and indicated that he was not the
counsel handling the case.
He
told the court that the accused persons were absent and maybe in remand, adding
that the prison officials would be communicated in due course before the next
adjourned date.
The
presiding judge chipped in and informed the court that the accused persons were
on bail and she averred that the way and manner the institution (A.G. Chambers)
is handling some criminal matters was very disappointing.
She
said some state counsel comes to court and without having any inkling or the
faintest idea about the case, whilst some comes to court to take dates and goes
to sleep.
Justice
Sainabou W. Cisse advised state counsel to always come to court prepared.
The
matter was then adjourned until 27 July 2017.
It
would be recalled that the accused persons, Ada Gaye, former Permanent
Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture during the Jammeh’s regime and four
others were indicted with multiple charges including economic crime, neglect of
office, abuse of office, conspiracy to commit felony amongst others.
