Nigerian mercenary Judge Dada sentences Gambian opposition leader, party executives to 3-year terms

Judge Dada and Mr. Dada 

Justice E. O Dada who has become the favorite judge-for hire cum hanging judge of the Gambian dictator Yaya Jammeh has. once more, done the bidding for one of Africa's most brutal regime by sentencing Ousainou Darboe, leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP) - Gambia's largest opposition party.

The opposition leader was sentenced to three years at the notorious Mile II prisons. Several members of the executive committee who were arrested together with the party leader in April of this year for peacefully protesting following the death in custody of a youth leader who was also protesting in favor of electoral reform.

Justice Dada's biased and unprofessional behavior throughout the show trial drove us to comment in a previous blog post that her insolent demeanor towards the defense team and, by extension the court, brought shame to the Gambian judiciary and to her country - The Federal Republic of Nigeria.  Ousainou Darboe, a legal luminary of over forty years of law practice was treated with contempt by a judge who could only be a judge in Yaya Jammeh's Gambia.

Seven new Nigerian mercenary judges including E.O.Dada  

In her ruling, she tried to assure the Gambian people that the Nigerian judges were in the Gambia to uphold Gambian law which is, with all due respect, callous and false.

These judges were recruited off the streets of Lagos and Abuja by a brutal, corrupt and incompetent regime to man its courts as an addition repressive measure against an exhausted and defenseless population that has endured 22 years of Jammeh's dictatorship.

The Gambian judiciary is an integral part of the  of the state's machinery that is being used as a blunt instrument of repression.  Yaya Jammeh dictates to the judiciary by directly issuing instructions to judges including the judgement passed by Justice E. O. Dada today.  She intended to defer judgement until next week - for reasons known to her - only to reverse course by issuing her verdict an hour later.  It is believed that she was instructed to proceed with the verdict.  It was a farce.  

In a press release, the United Democratic Party expressed sentiments shared by many Gambians that this was not a trial.  The statement continued that the trial "was a farce and an attempt by the criminal regime of Yaya Jammeh to thumb its nose at the Gambian people in particular and the wider international community who are adamant that the government fully account for its murderous conduct surrounding the peaceful events of April 14th and 16th."