Justice
Amina Saho-Ceesay of the High Court in Banjul recently dismissed the motion
moved by Lawyer Yassin Senghore, Counsel for the Gambia Bar Association (GBA),
for an interlocutory injunction to restrain the four judges from continuing to
sit pending the determination of the suit filed before the court.
Justice
Amina-Saho Ceesay’s decision came after lawyer Ida D. Drammeh, lawyer for the
Judicial Service Commission (JSC), replied to the bar association’s application
for the court to restrain the four judges.
Justice
A. S. Ceesay, who refused the application for interlocutory injunction, ruled
that the case be given an accelerated hearing.
Lawyer
Senghore, who also applied that the case be heard during the vacation by the
presiding judge, had the application turned down by the judge.
In
refusing the application for interlocutory injunction to restrain the four
judges from sitting, the court was of the view that granting the injunction may
amount to granting a prayer in the substantive suit filed by the Gambia Bar Association (GBA).
It
would be recalled that the Gambia Bar Association filed an action against the
Attorney General and Minister of Justice, and the Judicial Service Commission
(JSC) challenging the re-appointment of Justice Edward E. Ogar, Justice Martias
O. Agboola, Justice Simeon A. Abi and Justice Martins U. Okoi.
The
bar association was claiming among other things that the appointment of the
judges was not in line with the 1997 constitution of the Republic of The Gambia
and was therefore seeking the court’s jurisdiction to quash the appointment.
Senior
Lawyer Ida D. Drammeh, counsel for the Judicial Service Commision (JSC), filed
a preliminary objection to the suit filed by the bar association.
The
preliminary objection filed by Ida D. Drammeh seeks among things that the suit
filed by the Gambia Bar Association be dismissed, noting that the suit was
incompetent before the court.
The
matter was adjourned until 27 April 2017, for ruling on the preliminary
objection filed by the Judicial Service Commission.
