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UTG lecturer, 2 foreign nationals granted bail

Dec 17, 2014, 10:20 AM | Article By: Bakary Samateh

Sait Matty Jaw, lecturer at the University of The Gambia, and two foreign nationals, Seth Yaw Kandeh and Olufemi Erinle Titus, Nigerian and Ghanaian respectively, were yesterday granted bail by Magistrate Samsideen Conteh of the Banjul Magistrates’ Court.

The bail condition was for D5 million with two Gambian nationals one of whom must have landed property within the Greater Banjul Area equivalent to the bail bond.

The bail conditions further stated that the accused persons should report to the Banjul Police Station every Monday and Friday, pending the outcome of the trial.

The accused persons should also surrender their travel documents to the registrar of the court.

Delivering the ruling, the trial magistrate told the court the accused persons were arraigned before the court on Wednesday 10 December 2014 for the offence of conspiracy, among others.

The defence counsel also told the court the offence under which the accused persons were indicted is bailable.

Counsel also told the court the charge before the court is a misdemeanour and not a felony.

State counsel Abdurahman Bah told the court the state was not objecting to bail, but emphasised that the 2nd and 3rd accused persons are non-Gambians.

Meanwhile, defence counsel Ida Drammeh and Sagga Gaye applied for all witness statements.

The case was adjourned to 23 December 2014.

The state in count one accused Sait Matty Jaw, Seth Yaw Kandeh and Olufami Erinle Titus, that sometime in October 2014 at diverse places in the Gambia, they conspired to operate and carry on a business without registration, and thereby committed an offence.

Count two stated that they engaged in and carried on the business of collation of data for a Ghanaian company, FACTS International Ghana Limited, without registering same as required by law and thereby committed an offence.

Count three accused them of willful disobedience of the Statistics Act, when they undertook the collation of data on matters specified in the first schedule of the Act for the Ghanaian company, without authorization from the Gambia Bureau of Statistics and thereby committed an offence.

Count 4 stated that in willful disobedience of the Single Window Business Registration Act 2013, they engaged in and carried on the business of collation of data for the Ghanaian company without registering same, and thereby committed an offence.