Barely a week after the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court sentenced Tabara Samba to death, the same Court presided over by Principal Magistrate Moses Richards has passed yet another verdict of capital punishment on another convict, a Guinean named Sulayman Bah, after the latter was found guilty of killing his housemate, Mamudou Jallow, on 1st September 2007, by hitting him with an iron bar and literally slicing off his scalp.

According to Police Prosecutor Inspector Touray, the convict, Mr. Bah, on 1st September 2007 was involved in a scuffle with the late Mamudou Jallow, over cash amount of D10, 000 that the deceased reportedly found on a chair but which the convict claimed to own. After the quarrel the deceased reportedly returned the money amid insults. Following the prolonged bickering, the convict bludgeoned the deceased with an iron bar, causing him the fatal injury to which he succumbed at the RVTH where doctors carried out a post-mortem and issued a medical report.

The convict was expressionless and tried to feign innocence, attempting to blame the murder on some unknown person. The ruse totally backfired in the face of the overwhelming evidence against him.

In his ruling, Magistrate Richards stated that offences of that kind were becoming rampant in The Gambia, noting that it is so fearsome that the courts had to do something to curtail what he said are offences alien to the cherished Gambian culture. He further asserted that some foreigners are not grateful for the traditional Gambian hospitality.

He concluded by citing section 188 of the Laws of the Gambia as stipulating that one who murders must be sentenced to death.