By Tabora Bojang
The Gambia Tourism Board has filed a new motion at the High Court seeking a stay of execution to delay payment of monetary compensation to member of staff a court ruled was wrongly dismissed, until its appeal is determined.
Lamin Bojang had sued the GTBoard for wrongfully terminating his contract and won, with the court declaring his dismissal was “wrong, unlawful and ordered GTBoard to reinstate and pay him all his salaries and allowances with effect from April 2022.
However, the GTBoard filed an appeal at the Appeals Court to challenge the High Court ruling to reinstate and compensate him and followed it up with another motion to stop the execution of the judgement pending the hearing and determination of the case by the Appeal Court. But this was rejected by Justice Jobarteh who ruled that it was filed outside the time set by the rules.
Thereafter, the GTBoard filed a repeated application to the Court of Appeal seeking the same prayers but the Court of Appeal rejected the application stating that it agrees with the High Court’s position that GT Board’s application for a stay of execution was ‘incompetent’ and was ‘rightly rejected’.
In this new motion filed at the High Court, the GTBoard is seeking two orders: to be granted an extension of time within which to apply for a stay of execution and a stay of execution for that part of the judgement relating to the monetary compensation, arguing that if the said compensation of about D1million is paid to Bojang, it would be hard to recover it from him in the event that GTBoard wins its appeal.
