Ndondi Njie, the former Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), and the principal first witness in the ongoing D6 million forgery cases against Kawsu Ceesay, Chief Electoral Officer of the IEC was yesterday discharged after ending his marathon testimony in court.

Appearing before Magistrate Babucarr Secka, of the Kanifing Magistrates’ court, Mr. Njie who was cross-examined by defense lawyer, Musa Batchilly, said he never called a meeting which was attended by Sulayman Saite Mboob and Mr. Ceesay alone but rather a meeting involving all the commissioners in which the accused was present.

The 72 year old said the meeting was to give Mr. Ceesay the opportunity to react to the claims concerning the deal with Code Inc, a Canadian firm.

Mr. Njie further told the court that he was never arrested by the NIA, but “it was the NIA who came to my home and asked me to make a statement. I was later invited to the NIA headquarters for clarification and I was eventually detained”.

When asked by Lawyer Bachilly whether it was not true that it was while he was detained that this case came up, Mr. Njie answered in the negative, adding that the issue concerning Mr. Ceesay was dealt with by him (Mr. Njie) before his removal as Chairman of the IEC and that even after his removal, he wrote to inform the IEC that Code Incorporated has no right to claim for damages because by their rules, all firm payments should be accompanied by full payments.

“The specimen of my signature was taken at the Police headquarters and not at the NIA Headquarters. I did not also tell the writing experts that he had a small ‘n’ in his signature to mean ‘Njie’”, Mr. Nje explained.

He told the court that it would be ridiculous if the case was all about implicating Mr. Ceesay.

The trial was adjourned to April 11 2007, for continuation.