By Baba Sillah
The Judicial Service Commission and the Office of the Chief Justice having consultation with President Adama Barrow and pursuant to the recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission made on the 14th and 16th March 2017 respectively have appointed six Gambian nationals as judges of the superior courts of The Gambia.
The appointed Judges are: Cherno Sulayman Jallow, QC, and Mary Mam Yassin Sey to the Supreme Court; Naceesay Sallah-Wadda and Omar Momodou Musa Njie to the Court of Appeal; Zainab Jawara-Alami and Sainabou Wadda-Cissé to the High Court.
The appointments according to the letter available to The Standard, signed by the Judicial Secretary are to take effect from 1 May 2017.
Background of the appointees
Cherno Jallow has 28 years post-call experience as a lawyer and once worked at the Attorney General’s Chambers as Chief Parliamentary Counsel. He served as Attorney General of British Virgin Islands from 1999 to 2007 and currently works as the Director of Policy Research and Statistics of the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission.
Mary Mam Yassin Sey also has 28 years post-call experience as a lawyer and the first female appointed judge in The Gambia. She has also worked under UN and Ecowas in Liberia as legal adviser in the Office of the Special Representative of the Executive Secretary of Ecowas. She also served as a judge in Swaziland and Sierra Leone respectively and currently serves as Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Vanuatu.
Naceesay Sallah-Wadda has 18 years post-call experience as a lawyer. She served in various capacities including deputy director of public prosecution and acting Solicitor General and legal secretary at the Attorney General’s Chambers. In 2007 she was appointed as a High Court Judge and later Justice of the Gambia Court of Appeal from 2011 to 2016 before she was removed.
Omar Momodou Musa Njie has over 25 years post-call experience as private legal practitioner. He has also served as a lecturer in Civil Procedure at The Gambia Law School from 2014 to date.
Sainabou Wadda-Cissé has 15 years post-call experience as a lawyer and once served as a senior magistrate and chairperson of the Kanifing Industrial Tribunal. She has also served as the head of legal affairs and compliance at former Prime Bank and currently heads the legal affairs department and is company secretary at the Guaranty Trust Bank.
Zainab Jawara-Alami has 16 years post-call experience as a lawyer and once served as the Curator of Interstate Estate Department and State Counsel (Criminal Division) at the Attorney General’s Chambers and is currently deputy director and head of legal unit, Gambia Revenue Authority.
