The High Court has admitted documents tendered by Gampetroleum and Gambia National Petroleum Corporation into evidence in the civil suit filed by GACH Global Trading Company against Kaddijatou Kebbeh and Saikou Drammeh.
GACH wants to recover D58,961,150 and $221,000 or its equivalent in dalasi, being monies allegedly fraudulently acquired and retained by the defendants. In the writ of summons, GACH argued that the payments were meant for Gam Petroleum but hijacked by Madam Kebbeh and Mr. Drammeh.
Lawyers Gomez and Ida Drammeh appeared for the plaintiff, while lawyers F. Jallow and Badou SM Conteh appeared for the defendant.
Lamin Touray of Gampetroleum Storage Facility, who was a subpoenaed witness, continued his testimony by tendering documents requested by the court.
The document was tendered by the court as exhibit P1 without any opposition from defense lawyer F. Jallow.
However, when the witness produced the second document, which was tendered as exhibit P3, defense lawyer F. Jallow objected, arguing that the document produced by the witness didn’t look like an original copy, triggering a response from the plaintiff lawyer, Ida Drammeh, who stressed that the document is original and urged the court to accept it.
In his ruling, the presiding judge, Justice Ebrima Jaiteh, ruled that the document produced by the witness is color, and he has no reason to believe that it is a photocopy.
He subsequently admitted the document as exhibit P3.
The witness also tendered two other documents from Jah Oil, which were tendered as exhibits P4 and P5.
Also, appearing before Justice Jaiteh, Ebrima Bah, the assistant finance manager at GNPC, tendered all the documents he was asked to produce by the court.
The documents were marked as exhibits P8, P9, P10, and P11.
The documents included an invoice from GACH to GNPC dated 6 September 2021, with reference number GGT002, amounting to $1,146,350, and another invoice from GACH to GNPC with reference number GGT003, amounting to $814,610.09.
At that juncture, defense lawyer K. Jallow informed the court they were unable to hear from their client (KaddijatouKebbeh).
For her part, GACH lawyer Ida Drammeh applied to tender a WhatsApp message from Saikou Drammeh, which was accepted by the court and admitted as exhibit P13 after the defense lawyers consented to it.
Lawyer Drammeh informed the court that that was all for the plaintiff’s pre-trial conference.
However, defense lawyer K. Jallow informed the court of her intention to apply to amend their processes by including new evidence.
The court granted the application and asked lawyer K. Jallow to do so expeditiously. The hearing resumes on 4 December 2024.