The chief justice has dismissed the legal suit filed at the Supreme Court by UDP, NRP and the minority leader of the National Assembly, Momodou Lamin Sanneh, after about two weeks of legal tussling.

The trio filed the case at the country’s highest court, challenging the amendment to the Local Act and the 1997 Constitution, which empowers the president to remove mayors and dissolve local government councils.

In his ruling, delivered yesterday, Justice Abdou Karim Savage upheld the objections and submissions by defence counsels, Marie Saine-Firdaus, the attorney general and SoS for Justice, and Amie Joof-Conteh, counsel for IEC.

He ruled that the court has agreed with the submissions by  the defence counsels, saying that the case is incompetent and was improperly instituted.

He then dismissed the objections by the plaintiffs, pointing to several references, including the Supreme Court of The Gambia’s decision in a suit between the AG and Halifa Sallah & co. He recalled that the decision in that case was made by the full bench of the Supreme Court.

“The decision made by a competent full bench of a Supreme Court cannot be changed by any court. It is the duty of the judge to determine whether the suit before it is competent or not,” he said.

Shortly after the ruling, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, counsel for the three plaintiffs took the opportunity to inform the presiding judge of their intention to file in a suit for the matter to be heard by the full bench of the Supreme Court
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“We will file in a suit ordering the full bench of the Supreme Court to hear the case,” he emphasised.