Dear editor,
People want the truth, but when it’s negative all you receive is anger in return. People don’t want to believe what they don’t want to hear.
The trending purported audio of a member of the private prosecution team (Lawyer Sheriff Tambadou) in the NIA 9 case, has gone to show a desperate wife trying to dent the image/integrity of the prosecution team and whilst in the process trying to portray the case against her husband as a witch-hunt.
Listening to the audio I am with the conviction that Lawyer Sheriff Tambadou acted in good faith after agreeing to meet her, and really underestimated the evil that woman hatch for him. I know Lawyer Tambadou since 1997 while I worked as an Accountant for a multinational company and he acted as our company lawyer. During this period I have found him to be a man of the highest integrity, professionalism and with high sense of responsibility towards his client. Those calling for the resignation of the Justice Minister Ba Tambadou are way off line. Using the alleged statement said on the audio “Left to Ba the case would not have been prosecuted” is just the person on the audio saying his own thoughts and has nowhere said it was words of Ba.
I believe the public prosecution MUST take this matter seriously and investigate the lady, because recording a private conversation with someone without his/her consent is a crime and more so on a high profile criminal trial is a contempt of court. We must never be quick to judge until one hears from both sides.
Until I get the version of Lawyer Sheriff Tambadou, my respect and admiration for him stays intact and I am of the conviction that the Justice Minister Ba Tambadou did nothing wrong and should continue on his role as a state Minister.
Dabakh Malick
‘To err is human’ but to err might not qualify a person to be evil
Dear editor,
We must also remember the fact that Sheriff Tambadou Esq has done some great things for this country and her people at a time when many Gambians of his standing would dare not do. It was Sheriff who filed the appeal invoking the Review jurisdiction of the Supreme Court for the interpretation of S.(18)(1)(d) in Col. Bo Badjie & Co treason case, the case that set another milestone in our Constitutional Jurisprudence. It was in that case the Supreme Court given effect to the above section held that “a person cannot be condemned to death unless his action results to the death of another person.” We must not look at the appellants in these case but must pay attention to the legal significance of the judgement delivered in the case. It is clear from this case that a conviction for Treason for an act that did not lead to the death of another person would not satisfy the threshold for the imposition of capital punishment. The case also serves as the leading authority for Corroboration in our jurisdiction. Sheriff Tambedou takes the credit here since he was the lead counsel for the appellants in that significant constitutional case.
It was Sheriff Tambadou as President of The Gambia Bar Association who first stood out openly to condemn the former President Jammeh when he denounced the election results by refusing to step down.
It was Sheriff Tambadou president of The Gambia Bar Association and a private legal practitioner who went to Dakar to swear in President Barrow when the term of the Dictator ended. This was done at a period of great anxiety and uncertainty. It could have been done by our own Chief Justice or the other Gambian born judges of the superior courts, but they all backed out and refused to show solidarity with Gambians or to support the justice of our course. We must remember that those judges were hired and paid from our tax money and it was those same tax payers who voted Jammeh out.
I did not doubt the fact that the conversation between Sheriff and Yankuba Badjie’s wife does not amount to unethical behavior but must not also warrant us to label him as such an evil who has never done anything good for this country and her people.
He should simply recuse himself from the NIA 9 case.
Saul Sumbundu
