Why Justice Amadi should resign or be fired

Justice Amadi 

The case against Momodou Sabally, the former Secretary General and Head of the Civil Service of The Gambia who also served as Minister of presidential affairs, is so frivolous, it is embarrassing.

Mr. Sabally is charged with economic crime and faces imprisonment and fines that range from a maximum of 3 years and/or several millions of dalasi in fines.

The crime he is alleged to have committed was to have caused the delay of the flight of the Vice President of The Gambia by 15 minutes from departing Johannesburg for Banjul.

The prosecutions handling of the case from the word go has been contemptuous of the court because of the irrelevance of their testimony to the case, in addition to the inordinate requests for adjournment.  The recent testimony of a government accountant's testimony that added nothing to the case except to confirm to the court that she paid the Mr. Sabally's per diem prior to traveling to South Africa to accompany the Vice President who was to represent Yaya Jammeh at the inauguration of the newly elected South African leader.

The final contemptuous act by the prosecution occured at the sitting of the court when the court was informed that the next prosecution witness was in the United States - no reason given as to why the witness was in the US - and thus the need to adjourn the case for the umpteenth time.  Adjournment of cases is a favorite tactic amounts to punishment through frustration of the accused.

At this point Justice Amadi adjourned the case to June 4th with a threat that if the prosecution's witness is not presented then, he (Amadi) is prepared to pack his bags and return to Nigeria which is a serious admission that the regime is expecting him to rule in favor of the prosecution - an admission of partiality which disqualifies him from sitting in judgement of the Momodou Sabally case and any other future case for that matter.

Justice Amadi, like other judges in the Special Criminal Court before him, has demonstrated that he is there to serve the political interest of the Jammeh regime and not in dispensing justice.  Otherwise the case should have been thrown out of court as a frivolous case.  We, therefore, demand that Justice Amadi resigns in the interest of justice.  If he fails to do so, he should be fired immediately.