Justice Amadi while describing the behaviour of the accused in a written statement yesterday said he will no longer take ‘nonsense’ from the accused person, Ebrima Sanyang. He said: “You have been disturbing me. I’m not a bad man. Today is the second occasion when the accused person obstructed me from the proceedings. His claim is that he is the lawyer and knows the law more than the court and his lawyer. On the first day, he insulted me and I forgave him. Today again, he is screaming seriously until three prison officers came to him and urged him to be quiet.”
Mr Sanyang is on trial on a charge of murder at the high court in Banjul. He is accused of stabbing Alhagie Jobarteh repeatedly with a knife last October at the Abuko Upper Basic School.
Mr Sanyang was screaming in court in reaction to the evidence of the principal of Abuko Upper Basic School that he (the accused) threw a chair at the direction of Alhagie Jobarteh (deceased). “The witness said the accused threw a chair at the direction of the deceased. No one said the accused threw the chair at the deceased. Yet he is disturbing me. If he continues to obstruct the case, I will adjourn the case to sine die. I will adjourn it until I leave The Gambia. I cannot take this kind of nonsense,” Amadi added.
Earlier, the Principal of Abuko Upper Basic School, Mrs Marian Susan Williams in her testimony said the incident took place on October 31 2014 at the school premises. She said: “On that day, I went to the school and did my morning rounds to see if the teachers were in their classes. When I went back to my office, I heard a noise coming from the staff room. I rushed to the staff room and stood by the entrance to see what was going on. That was the time I saw Alhagie Jobarteh (the deceased) running towards the door followed by the accused who was holding a chair and a knife. Outside, the accused threw the chair at the direction of the deceased and rushed to the main gate. I asked what had happened and I heard people saying he had stabbed him.”
Under cross-examination, Mrs Williams said she did not saw the accused stab the deceased.
Also testifying was a police officer who arrested Mr Sanyang after the incident. Buba Jawo said he went to the scene after one Bubacarr Jobarteh came to the Abuka Police Station that a teacher was stabbed by Mr Sanyang. “We went to the scene but we found that the deceased was rushed to EFSTH. Bubacarr Jobarteh took us to the accused person’s house. The accused locked himself in his room. We managed to open the door and found him with a knife. I took the knife away from him, arrested him and took him to the police station,” he said.
Trial will continue on Monday.
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