By Nicholas Bass
Fatou Jatta, a Police Officer from the Banjulunding Police Station, on Monday, testified in the ongoing drug smuggling case involving one Saikou Dampha, presided over by Magistrate Peter Adoh Che of the Brikama Magistrates’ Court.
She told the court that, she took the sample of the suspected drug to the Lab on the 22nd of March 2022, but the analytical report was issued on the 31st of March 2021 where it confirmed the suspected drug of the accused to be cannabis.
Meanwhile, Counsel Solomon C. Jatta who represented the accused objected to the analytical report, saying that the period of the analytical report of the suspected drug was contrary to section 76, subsection 2 of the Gambia drug control Act which stated that ‘’the analytical report of the suspected drug shall be tested within seven days.” “I urged this honorable Court to grant my application,’’ Counsel Jatta pleaded to the Court.
However, Police prosecutor Omar S. Jallow opposed Counsel Jatta’s application stating that the Counsel misinterpreted section 76, subsection 2 of the Gambia drug control Act which states the issuing of the analytical report of the suspected drug and not the period of the preparation of the analytical report of the suspect drug.
“The analytical report of the suspected drug is admissible before the Court which is in line with sections 1, 3, and 45 of the Gambia drug control Act,” he stressed.
At this junction, Magistrate Peter Adoh Che adjourned the case to the 28th of July 2022 for ruling on the application.
