By: Muhammed Lamin Drammeh
The Chairman of the Brikama Area Council (BAC), Yankuba Darboe, who is facing a sedition trial against the Judiciary, has said the lawsuit against him was politically inspired.
Mr. Darboe is accused of making derogatory statements against the President of the Gambia, Adama Barrow, and the Gambian Judiciary.
Darboe, who maintained that he has no case to answer, said there is no major reason behind his trial than the “witch-hunting” the government is doing against him as a political opponent.
“Our stand on this case is that this is all politics and witch-hunting. There is nothing behind this case except witch-hunting and fights the government place on my head,” Chairman told journalists after yesterday’s court hearing in Banjul, in which Magistrate ML Thomasi granted a stay of execution from the motion submitted by Darboe’s lawyer.
Backing his claim that the government brought the sedition case against him as a political ploy, Darboe said that the killing of the two policemen on September 14 by an unidentified shooter was even linked to him by the government spokesman, all in their efforts to stop him.
“You have all seen when the two paramilitary officers died, what they said first was that Yankuba Darboe paid the killer, he is working under him, he came with him to Banjul; all these are fights against me. There is nothing there than lies and that is what is behind this case,” he explained.
In the previous court hearing of the case before yesterday’s ruling, Yankuba Darboe’s lawyer, LS Camara, filed a “no case to answer” and a motion for the magistrate to stay off the case for what Yankuba and his lawyer believed was a legal factual error in his ruling.
While the motion is at the High Court pending decision, Magistrate Thomas consented to a stay of execution for the motion filed by Chairman Darboe, but he declined to recuse himself from the case.
Magistrate Thomasi then indefinitely adjourned the proceedings until a decision was made at the High Court over Yankuba’s second appeal for the magistrate to recuse himself from the case.
