Twist in Dr Gumbo Touray’s case

The defence had taken a dramatic twist in the false information case involving Dr Gumbo Touray at the Banjul Magistrates’ Court before Principal Magistrate Tabally.

When the trial resumed yesterday, senior defence counsel Pap Cheyassin Secka told the court that the defence would like to address the court on the issue of jurisdiction.

According to counsel Secka, he could not be seen, as deputy doyen of the bar, to be ignoring the provisions of the constitution, adding that he was made to be aware of the defect of the charge before the court, which could be raised at any stage of the proceedings.

He said the issue of jurisdiction is a substantive issue, and could be raised at any stage of the proceedings.

The case was at that juncture adjourned till 20 September 2011.

According to the charge sheet between March and April 2011, in Banjul, the accused person Gumbo Touray wrote a petition to the Office of the President, stating that the Vice Chancellor of the University of The Gambia, Professor Kah, is bent on employing his relatives at the university, which information he knew to be false and thereby committed an offence.