The litigation over the fate of the 1557 textbooks that allegedly went into wrong hands has assumed another dimension.
Yesterday, the Banjul Magistrates’ Court, chaired by Ms. Mboto, ordered the prosecution to retrieve a video cassette from the Gambia Radio and Television Services which reportedly contain the details surrounding the textbooks.

The former education officer for region six, Mr. Alpha Camara, is being tried for diverting the 1557 textbook marked ‘Not for Sale’.

On resumption of the trial, the prosecution informed the court that the trial has suffered numerous setbacks due to the defense counsel’s insistence that the video cassette be produced in court before the case could proceed. But according to the prosecutor, Cadet Inspector Keita, the prosecution was not in possession of the said cassette or aware of its existence and could not therefore produce it.

But in her ruling, magistrate Mboto ordered the prosecution to make all efforts possible to produce the cassette before the resumption of the trial on 14 August 2007.