Court grants him 100, 000K bail
Justice Joseph Wowo, Gambia’s Court
of Appeal President until recently, has been granted bail by the Criminal Division of the High Court in Banjul, the capital, on Jan. 21, 2013.
 |
| Justice Wowo is accused of "lying" to State Agents, a charge he denied |
He was remanded at the State’s
maximum security wing, the Mile 2 central prison after he was arraigned before
the Banjul Magistrates
Court on Friday and charged with “giving false information” to a public
officer.
Wowo, a Nigerian, was
reportedly arrested on Jan. 17, 2013 and subsequently reportedly dismissed from
his position.
Wowo, who served briefly as
Gambia’s acting Chief Justice has since pleaded “not guilty.”
Magistrate Dawda Jallow,
presiding, subsequently ordered for Wowo to be held in custody.
Under Gambian Law, crimes of
“giving false information” are punishable with a fine of D500 or 6 months
imprisonment or both.
On Monday, a Cameroonian judge
Justice Emmanuel Nkea, presiding at the Special Criminal
Court, granted Wowo court bail in the sum of one hundred thousand
dalasis (D100, 000), a condition was
attached that one person stood surety for him.
This decision followed the bail
application filed by his counsel Ida Drammeh.
The prosecution accuses Wowo of
writing a letter to the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, on or about Dec., 3,
2012 in Banjul, informing them that Mrs. Amie Bensouda, a private lawyer,
conducted herself in a manner that was undermining the administration of The
Gambia Judiciary, by asking for data on pending cases related to land.
The prosecution said Wowo knew
this information was false at the time.
Prior to his granting of bail,
lawyer Ida Drammeh, defending, said the offence the accused is charged with
under section 114(a) of the Criminal Code is a misdemeanor and a bailable
offence.
The state has not filed any
opposing affidavit as such the state is not opposing the application for bail,
she argued.
SalehHadi Barkun, prosecuting,
admitted the state is not opposing the bail application filed by the defence.
Justice Nkea, presiding, also admitted
to this fact.
“In this case no reason has
been advanced why I should not grant bail and cannot invent one,” he said.
“If the parties before the
court say they have common grounds on the grant of bail, the court cannot
discern into the arena to do otherwise,” he added.
He then grant the erstwhile
president of the Appeals Court bail in the sum of D100,000 with one surety in
like sum who must show proof of means and must be properly identified by the
principal registrar of High Court.
Proceedings at the Banjul
Magistrates Court are scheduled to continue on 28th Jan., 2013.
Follow
on Twitter: @thenorthbankeve
Follow on Facebook: The-North-Bank-Evening-Standard
Written by Modou S. Joof
No comments:
Post a Comment
The views expressed in this section are the authors' own. It does not represent The North Bank Evening Standard (TNBES)'s editorial policy. Also, TNBES is not responsible for content on external links.