By Binta A Bah
A high court judge yesterday rejected a downloaded investigative report published by journalist Mustapha K Darboe of Malagen implicating former permanent secretary, ministry of fisheries, Bamba Banja.
The former PS is accused of accepting bribe from a Chinese private company which he denied. The prosecutor had wanted the court to tender the report through journalist Mustapha K Darboe, who did a story on Banja in October 2020.
The judge’s decision not to admit the report followed Banja’s lawyer Abdoulie Fatty’s objection that the said report was a computer-generated document downloaded from a computer despite the prosecution’s argument that his witness is the author of the report and has proper custody.
The prosecutor later attempted to withdraw tendering of the document but defence lawyer Fatty protested that it was too late as he had already argued why the report must be tendered into evidence.
In his testimony, Mr Darboe said the ‘implicating’ audio was shared with him and a BBC journalist. According to him, Banja’s voice could be heard saying ‘this one I will share with my minister’ and lot of other things.
