Judicial officials and members of the Gambia Bar Association, yesterday, affirmed their commitment towards strengthening and implementing the code of conduct for the Gambian Judiciary, after extensive discussions.

Members of the Bench and the Bar Association made this resounding commitment at a one-day public lecture, organised by the Office of the Chief Justice, at Courtroom No 1 at the High Court complex, Banjul.

The rare public lecture brought together judges of the Supreme and High Courts, magistrates and lawyers.

Justice Niki Tobi of the Supreme Courts of the Republic of Nigeria and The Gambia, who appeared as the guest speaker, spoke at length on the need for strict and uncompromising observation for the judicial code of conduct, especially for judges, lawyers and magistrates.

Justice Tobi gave analysis of interpretation of the difference between interim, interlocutory and perpetual injunctions.

He urged judges and lawyers to stick to the principles of exercising impartial justice and the basic tenets of the laws of the land.

According to the learned judge, the 1997 Constitution of The Gambia provides a provision on the code of conduct, which is applicable to judges as public officials.

The public lecture was characterised by a question-and-answer session, bordering on the need for strict observation of the judicial code of conducts by judicial officials.

The ceremony was chaired by Chief Justice Abdou Karim Savage and the vote of thanks was delivered by Amie Bensouda, the president of the Gambia Bar Association, who assured the gathering of the Bar’s commitment to the holding of a regular public lecture.

Emmanuel Fagbenle, the director of Public Prosecution (DPP), who represented Mrs Marie Saine-Firdaus, the attorney general and secretary of state for Justice, commended the organisers for the initiative.

Christopher Badjie, an escaped prisoner with five different names, currently facing 22 charges for criminal offences at the Banjul Magistrates Court, has opened his defence in the voire dire (mini trial) instituted to determine the voluntariness of his cautionary statements obtained from the accused.

In his evidence before principal magistrate BY Camara, Christopher Badjie informed the court that he was arrested by personnel of the NIA on 27th February 2008, in Senegambia, from where he was whisked away to his Bijilo residence, before been taken to the NIA Headquarters.

At the NIA Headquarters, Mr Badjie said, a search was carried out on him before he was put in a cell. He said one of the NIA officers told him that lawyers were not allowed at the NIA and that no lawyer could help him. ”I was detained in that particular cell for about five weeks. I was not granted bail from the day of my arrest on Febuary 27 up till March 4,” he told the court.

Mr Badjie further informed the court that officials of the NIA made several attempts to obtain cautionary statements from him, but he had refused to comply throughout, before they settled to threatening to keep him incommunicado, “indefinitely”.

He revealed that few days later, officials of the NIA informed him about the arrest of his wife and the subsequent heart attack she suffered, which resulted to her admission at the RVTH. He alleged he was refused details about her wife’s health condition.

However, Mr Badjie identified the cautionary statement bearing his signature, which, according to him, was made without his consent. “It was obtained on the promise that I would be released from custody in order to see my wife who was said to have suffered a heart attack,” he said.

Christopher Badjie then recalled on April 10, when he was arrested by personnel of the NIA, immediately after the court proceeding and whisked away to the NIA office, where he was told about an investigation of a new matter. ”I was questioned about a landed property in Bijilo and a list of questionnaire was given to me, but I refused to answer them”, he asserted.

Emmanuel Fagbenle, the director of Public Prosecution, subjected the accused to a marathon cross examination.

The principal magistrate, BY Camara, later adjourned the case to today, June 5, for continuation of the proceedings.

In every democratically governed country, government is said to be comprised of three arms: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. While the former tend to overshadow the running of the day-today affairs of the nation, the role of the other two are totally indispensable to the success of the entire government. In fact, the composition of these individual arms makes the saying that the government of a country includes its entire people a compelling truth.   

While the executive wing is dominated mainly by politicians, with the solid expertly backings of people at the grassroots, the legislature comprises other sets of politicians chosen by the ordinary citizens, whose views are in fact supposed to be influencing the operations of the central government. And the judiciary is by no measure different from the rest, as they are another set of experts, effectively working like some sort of a regulatory body.

The above explanation goes to stress the fact that there is absolutely no excuse for anyone to exclude themselves from the collective effort of nation building. The traditional, but wrong concept has been that government is the president and his/her cabinet members.

This has led to the wrong conclusion that only government (the president and his cabinet) and nobody else, are under the obligation of providing every need of the people.  

The fact is that, as has been said every now and again, each and every one of us has their role to play in taking the country where we want it to be. Take, for instance, the admirable move by Lawyer Jorbateh, who helped construct a police station in his home village of Bansang. His is an idea conceived out of the most beautiful of minds The Gambia currently needs.

Considering the way society regards lawyers, especially private lawyers, because of their views on the law, their stance on the application of the laws, the fact that they tend to be portrayed as defenders of criminals, Lawyer Jorbateh’s move comes with a resounding message, a message that aims at all and sundry. This makes him stands out among his peers as a genuine and patriotic lawyer.

Indeed, there are many people like him that can do a similar thing. But unfortunately many of us would want to amass wealth just to sit back and marvel at it. Sometimes we prefer using our wealth to antagonize government, all of this at the detriment of the people we claim to be fighting for.

If only each of us could think of doing something that would affect the people of our entire village, we will surely propel the country to a higher height. And of course, the Konians story on page 2 is another marvellous example we should all emulate.

We share Hon Ebrima Jammeh’s sentiments that cases should be quickened in the courts so that justice is not seen to be denied. We agree with him that protracted delay of cases hinders progress and “retards social cohesion”. Citing the Babylon Crisis to drive home his point, the Independent National Assembly Member from Foni Bintang Constituency Hon Jammeh said that if the case had been handled with the speed it deserved, it would not have degenerated to the abominable state it is now.

But we think that castigating the judiciary is not the best way to deal with this perennial problem of backlog of cases in the courts. We think that rather than slam our magistrates and judges for adjourning cases brought before them; we should try to understand the constraints under which they do their job. Often when cases are mentioned for hearing in court, either a defence lawyer is not in court or a prosecution witness is unavoidably absent. And besides there is the need to adhere to the due process and procedures

And this raises a very serious problem facing the legal system as a whole in this country – shortage of manpower. There seems to be a shortage of lawyers to meet the ever- growing litigation needs of our people; there seems to be a shortage of magistrates to preside over cases, as a result, the few available ones are overburdened with cases. In spite of the recent appointment of three Gambians as Judges, the human requirements for the High Court are far from being met. This perhaps explains why some magistrates and judges are impatient to adjourn cases in which a party to the case is absent. And this perhaps explains why a lawyer is holding brief for a client in Bundung Magistrates’ Court, while his other client in Banjul Magistrates’ Court has to watch his or her case adjourned because the lawyer is not in court. Lawyers are human beings; they cannot split themselves into two to be in two different courts at the same time.

We hope that with the coming into being of the law faculty at the University of the Gambia, this problem will soon be taken care of.

We also believe that conditions of service at the bench should be made attractive so as to attract bright young Gambians. If our young lawyers feel that prospects for advancement in pay and positions are limited in the bench, it is natural that they will stick to private practice where the grass is apparently greener.

We suggest to Hon Ebrima Jammeh that as a lawmaker he should take time off to study the situation in the judiciary with a view to formulating a law to deal with the problems that are facing the bench in this country. A creative approach to issues is what we need in this country, not criticism for criticism’s sake.