The Banjul
magistrates’ court presided over by principal magistrate Hilary Abeke Monday
acquitted and discharged Abdoulie Tambedou, a former managing director of the
Gambia Ports Authority, who was charged with the offence of giving false
information to a public officer.
Delivering his judgment, the trial magistrate told the court that the accused was arraigned early last year, and he denied the charge.
The prosecution had called several witnesses including one Lamin Sanyang, the sixth prosecution witness.
The testimony of Sanyang, who was supposed to be the star witness, was not credible, and the court could not rely on it to secure a conviction against the accused person, the magistrate said.
“I therefore acquit and discharge the accused person”, he declared.
The particulars of the offence in count one were that Abdoulie Tambedou, on 13 August 2012 in Banjul wrote a petition to the Office of the President, alleging indiscipline by the associates and relatives of his predecessor, Momodou Lamin Gibba, by way of making derogatory remarks towards him and the GPA management with intent to make the GPA ungovernable, information he knew to be false at the time.