Gambia’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice has said the country now faces a potential legal liability bill in excess of 2 billion (two billion) dalasis.
According to him, the new government has inherited some international cases which were filed against The Gambia as a result of the purported acts of the former government of Yahya Jammeh.
Abubacar Tambedou made this revelation on Thursday during a Press Conference convened by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice at its Banjul Offices, to provide information about some of the activities of the Ministry of Justice over the past few weeks.
“The Ministry of Justice is currently exploring various options for a quick resolution of these cases so that we can put them behind us and focus on the important task of rebuilding and strengthening our justice system” he said.
According to Minister Tambedou, the Ministry of Justice was also able to secure assistance from the International Senior Lawyers Project in specialized areas of legal practices such as preparing, drafting and reviewing international commercial agreements to cover capacity deficit in the Ministry in the short term. He said a Senior Lawyer will be seconded from the International Senior Lawyers Project to the Ministry very soon at no cost to government.
“The Ministry is also exploring other ways of shoring up capacity at the Ministry through donor funding of local support initiatives. We are looking at the possibility of hiring members of the private bar on contract as a stop gap measure while the capacity of existing resources within the Ministry is being strengthened in key areas” he noted.
