Magistrate Omar Cham, who had presided over the case for months now, is said to have been transferred to the Bundung Magistrates’ Court.
The trial will, however, resume on April 30 2015 and the principal magistrate of the court, Hillary Abeke, will have to decide which magistrate will now take over the case.
The Caliph General and the Alkalo of the said village are standing trial on charges of conspiracy and disobedience to lawful order for observing the past Muslim feast of Eid -ul-Fitre on a state-sanctioned day, charges they have denied.
“The presiding magistrate in the case is said to have been transferred to Bundung Magistrates’ Court now and the case is yet to be assigned to anyone. But we are working on that with the principal magistrate as who to take over the case before the resumption of the case on the next adjourned date,” Barrister Lamin Mboge, one of the lawyers in the case, told reporters yesterday.
Meanwhile, in a similar but different case, the rulings on the no-case applications in the trials of Lang Conteh, the former Kanilai Farms manager, and Dr Njogu Bah, the former secretary general and head of civil service, have been postponed. It is also due to the transfer of Dawda Jallow, the presiding magistrate at the magistrates’ court in Banjul.
Mr Lang Conteh is accused of stealing D1, 538,804 from the coffers of his employer while he was serving as manager of the farm but has since denied the charge.
Bah, meanwhile, is also accused of abusing his office and appointing one Ms Jainaba Jobarteh as The Gambia’s representative to the United Nations in New York. Bah has maintained his innocence and argues that the appointment was a proposal from Personnel Management Office.
Both cases will resume on April 30 2015.
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