By Bruce Asemota
![image 91](https://i0.wp.com/standard.gm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/image-91.png?resize=142%2C142&ssl=1)
A magistrate of the Kanifing court, Ebrima Janko Colley, now under interdiction, and two others, court registrar Rilwan Ottman and Mariama Jankey Tamba, a court clerk, yesterday appeared before Justice Sarah Aryee of the High Court in Banjul.
The trio are charged with multiple counts, including fraud, dealing with prohibited drugs, breach of trust and neglect of official duty amongst others.
Opening the case, Abdoulie Ceesay, an official at the Drug Law Enforcement Agency Gambia (DLEAG) testifying as the first prosecution witness.
told the court that he knows all three accused persons.
The Dleag official said in October, 2021, he was assigned a case involving one Bubacar Muhammed Sallah, who was found with 52 blocks of cocaine and sentenced to an imprisonment of 12 years in default to pay a fine of D5million at the Kanifing magistrates’ court presided over by Magistrate Ebrima Cilley, the first accused in this case.
The witness said the convict paid his fine and he was released.
The witness said shortly after the conclusion of the case, Dleag requested that the exhibits be given to them for safe keeping and destruction when the need arose, but Magistrate Colley, the first accused refused, and asked Dleag to write to the Chief Justice.
He further explained that he wrote to the Chief Justice who granted his request for the exhibits to be given to Dleag.
“So, I went to the Kanifing Court with some officials to retrieve the exhibits but on arrival we discovered that there were some anomalies, and the exhibits were tampered with,” the witness said.
The witness said the 52 blocks of cocaine that were packed in two cartons were no longer in their original cartons.
We conducted a test on the said drugs and samples were extracted from the 52 blocks of cocaine only to discover that some were not actual cocaine,” the witness said.
Asked by lead defence Counsel, LK Mboge as to whether he was aware of the recent burning of drugs by Dleag, the witness replied in the affirmative but stated that he cannot comment on that matter as he was part of the investigation team.
Lawyer Mboge then made an application for the prosecution to furnish the court with the letter written by Dleag to the Chief Justice requesting that former Magistrate Colley hand over the exhibits to Dleag.
Mboge further applied for the prosecution to furnish the court with receipts of payment by the accused and the charge sheet of the case that Magistrate Colley presided over at Kanifing court.
The trial continues on 3 February.