The court made the order following the application of defence counsel LK Mboge for the state prosecutor to produce the witness statement of Mr Fadera, inthe trial involving Dr Njogu Bah, the formerSecretary General and Presidential Affairs Minister.
Njogu Bah was charged with ‘abuse of office’, but he denied any wrongdoing.
When the case was called for continuation of cross-examination, state prosecutor B. Jeng applied for an adjournment on the grounds that the third prosecution witness and permanent secretary at the Personnel Management Office, Dawda Fadera, was out of the jurisdiction.
Defence counsel Lamin K. Mboge did not oppose the application for adjournment, but renewed his earlier application for the state to produce the statement of the said witness for continuation of cross-examination.
The notice had been filed and served on the state since the 3 September 2014, and once that statement was produced, he would finish with the cross-examination of the witness, counsel Mboge said.
“Several orders were made by the court for the state to produce the statement but up to date I have not been served with the statement,” he asserted.
The trial magistrate then ruled that the state should make the statement of the said witness available to the defence, and adjourned the case to 7 October 2014, for continuation of the hearing.
Dr Njogu Bah was alleged to have sometime, in January 2013 at State House in Banjul, abused the authority of his office as Secretary General and Head of the Civil Service by interfering with the recommendation and posting of Ms Jainaba Jobarteh to the Gambia’s permanent mission at the United Nations in New York without following the proper procedure of nomination, and thereby committed an offence.
