Senior Magistrate Kayode Olajubutu of Banjul Magistrates Court will deliver his judgement in the criminal trial of Manlafi Sanyang, the former controller of government vehicles at State House, Banjul.

Mr Sanyang, an ex-Supt of the Gambia Police Force, has been standing trial on charges of theft and abuse of office. Mr Sanyang was accused of stealing a government vehicle with the registration number BJL 4591B and abuse of office. However, ex-Supt Sanyang has denied the charges.

During the course of the trial, the prosecution called four witnesses: ASP Fabureh, the officer commanding at the Police Licensing Department; ASP Philip Jarju, who is attached to the Government Vehicle Control Unit at State House; Detective Bakary Bojang at the Police Headquarters and Alhaji Conteh, a businessman, who reportedly bought the vehicle from Mr Sanyang at a cost of D75,000.

Despite the appearance of several prosecution witnesses, the defence counsel, Lamin Camara, went ahead to file a no-case-to-answer submission, which was overruled by the senior magistrate on the grounds that the accused person had to explain certain “unanswered” questions.

Lawyer Camara later invited three defence witnesses, Lamin Manneh, an APRC secretary general for Lower Fulladu Constituency, Central River Region, and Manlang Dampha, a driver of one of the vehicles bought for the 2001 election campaigns, and the accused himself. Abdoulie Kujabi, to whom Manlafi claimed to have handed the D75,000, was summoned by the court to give evidence but to no avail.