By Nicholas Bass
The defense lawyer for the Chairman of the Brikama Area Council on Friday filed a motion for a stay of proceedings in the case against his client but the interim lead prosecutor in the trial ASP Yaya S. Colley described the motion as an insubordination to Banjul High Court order.
ASP Yaya S. Colley, who appeared on behalf of Commissioner Abdoulie Sanneh, told the Banjul Magistrates’ Court presided over by magistrate M.L Thomasi that the motion filed byDarboe’s lead lawyer Lamin Camara for a stay of proceedings at the lower court in Banjul was insubordination of the Banjul High Court order.
He contended that the Banjul Magistrates’ Court has no jurisdictional authority to grant a stay of proceedings in the case against Chairman Yankuba Darboe, stating that the Gambia Court of Appeals is the only court that has the jurisdictional authority to grant a stay of proceedings in Darboe’s case.
He further argued that there was no evidence to show thatlawyer Camara had sought leave from the Gambia Court of Appeals for the hearing of his client’s appeal ”if any was filed”.
ASP Colley argued that Section 133 of the 1997 Constitution has empowered the Banjul High Court to give supervisory directives to other courts, noting that if magistrate Thomasi acquiesces indefense lawyer Camara’s motion of a stay of proceedings, it willamount to constitutional and judicial insubordination.
”The entire motion is incompetent, lacks merits, and is an abuse of process,” ASP Colley argued.
However, lead defense lawyer Lamin S. Camara said that his client’s appeal at Banjul High Court was dismissed after he was ordered by the court to facilitate the transmission of the records of proceedings of Banjul Magistrates’ Court, questioning the legality of the order for his client to transmit court records that should ease the process of his appeal before a judge.
Paragraph 12 of counsel Camara’s affidavit stated that the record of his client’s proceedings’ first draft was typed but required vetting. He pointed out that the high court dismissed his client’s notice of appeal on 11 July 2024, because it was vetted.
Camara said that after the dismissal of his client’s appeal at the high court, he lodged an appeal at the Gambia Court of Appealsagainst the ruling that dismissed his client’s appeal on 25 July 2024, stressing that, unless restrained, the Inspector General of Police will render Darboe helpless.
Meanwhile, Justice G.A. Kwabeng in his ruling on Darboe’s appeal said: ” I hereby dismiss both petitions of appeal filed on 28 August 2023, and 12 October 2023, respectively, as the excuses deposed to in the two affidavits in opposition are not tenable but an abuse of the court process.” He added: ”In my considered view, they are calculated to delay the trial at the lower court. I make no order as to the costs. The files are to be remitted to the lower court for continuation of the trial of the appellant.”
It could be recalled that Yankuba Darboe sometime in February 2021, was charged with two counts of sedition and contempt of court and he is now standing trial on contempt of courtcharges before Magistrate M.L Thomasi of the Banjul Magistrates’ Court following his defense lawyers’ no case-to-answer submission over sedition charges.
