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Observer editor Jobe and Co trial adjourned again

Jul 5, 2013, 10:36 AM | Article By: Malamin L.M. Conteh

The criminal trial involving Alhagie Jobe, deputy editor-in-chief of the Daily Observer Newspaper, and one Mbye Bittaye was yet again adjourned yesterday at the Special Criminal Court in Banjul before Justice Emmanuel Nkea.

Alhagie Jobe was being tried on a five-count charge of making an act with seditious intention, seditious publication, and possession of seditious publication, giving false information to public servant, and reckless and negligence, while Mbye Bittaye was being tried on a single count of making preparation to do act with seditious intention.

The case was adjourned on the grounds that the defence counsel, E. Jah applied for an adjournment, as he had an emergency errand to attend to.

However, this was objected to by the state counsel on the grounds that his witness was already in court, adding that his witness on the last sitting had come late and as a result, the case could not proceed.

However, the court granted the defence counsel’s application for adjournment.

The case was then adjourned till 10 July 2013, for cross-examination of PW1.

Count one of the charge sheet read that Alhagie Jobe, between 2012 and 2013, at the Daily Observer Company, in the Kanifing Municipality, did an act with seditious intention to wit: published in a purported Daily Observer Newspaper of 19 December 2012, a false story that “Major Lamin Touray on the run for imminent re-arrest and detention and charged in absentia for breach of office ethics and codes by refusing to take orders in the execution of some people” and thereby committed an offence.

Count two stated that Alhagie Jobe, between 2012 and 2013, at the Daily Observer Company, in the Kanifing Municipality, published a seditious publication on a purported Daily Observer Newspaper of 19 December 2012 to wit: that “Major Lamin Touray on the run for imminent re-arrest and detention and charged in absentia for breach of office ethics and codes, by refusing to take orders in the execution of some people”, and thereby committed an offence.

Count three indicated that Alhagie Jobe, between 2012 and 2013, at the Daily Observer Newspaper Company, in the Kanifing Municipality and other various places in The Gambia, without lawful excuse had in possession a seditious publication, and thereby committed an offence.

Count four disclosed that Alhagie Jobe, in February 2013, at the NIA office in Banjul, informed a panel of investigators that Assan Sallah, Madikhan Jobarteh and Mariama Danjo are involved in seditious publication, information he knew to be false and thereby committed an offence.

Count five stated that Mbye Bittaye, sometime in February 2013, at the Daily Observer Company, in the Kanifing Municipality and other places in The Gambia, made preparation to do an act with seditious intention to wit: called Assan Sallah of Observer company and asked him to publish a story in the Daily Observer Newspaper for one Samba Njie who is seeking asylum in the UK, and thereby committed an offence.

Count six indicated that Alhagie Jobe, on 8 February 2013, at Tallinding, in the Kanifing Municipality, rashly and negligently drove a vehicle bearing registration number Observer 2, and thereby committed an offence.