Kawsu Ceesay Reveals

The Accused, Kawsu Ceesay, yesterday revealed before Magistrate Baboucarr Secka of the Kanifing Magistrates court that ‘Code Incorporated, a Canadian company, had intended to take IEC to court for breach of contract.

Continuing his testimony Mr. Ceesay stated that after Mr. Ndondi Njie was removed from office as the IEC Chairman, he understood through the new chairman, Alhagie Mustapha Carayol that Code Company intended to take the IEC to court for breach of contract. He said they received the document from the foreign affairs in Banjul, adding that Mr. Carayol had called him into his office and given him a bunch of papers to study and for them to discuss. He said after discussing the issue, Mr. Carayol asked him to make copies available to all the commission members including the sacked chairman, Mr. Ndondi Njie.

According to the accused Kawsu Ceesay, Mr. Njie wrote to inform the new chairman that the IEC had no obligation to pay to Code as the IEC never ordered election materials from them.

He said that on 20th December 2005, Mr. Njie gave him an instruction to place an order, adding that during a meeting attended by Sulayman Mboob, Mr. Njie informed Mr. Mboob that he did not give him the instruction to place an order, but he maintained Mr. Njie gave him the authority to place an order as he could not on his own, order the election material for the conduct of elections in The Gambia. He said before the appointment of Mr. Njie as the IEC Chairman, there was a multiple purpose committee set up to take charge of the procurement procedure of election materials, but when Mr. Njie took over the office, this committee became unfunctional.

He also stated before Mr. Njie took over as the IEC Chairman there were four people authorized to sign cheque including the chairman, and the director of administration was authorized to sign cheque below D10,000, but when Mr. Njie was appointed the number of people authorized to sign cheque was reduced to two, the chairman himself and the director of finance who is the chief accountant.
He said in June 2006, the IEC purchased some election materials from Senegal, adding that the commission wrote a letter to Trust Bank asking the bank to transfer D700, 000 to The Gambia High Commission to help in the procurement of the registration and election materials. He said the commission faced a lot of difficulty as there was shortage of registration materials, with many eligible Gambians going into the registration centre without getting registered.

Mr. Ceesay further noted that on the 17th July 2006, Mr. Njie call him to his office and told him, “Kawsu, I am fine”, meaning he was removed as chairman of the IEC. He said Mr. Njie was escorted by the official of the NIA after having his office locked. He narrated that he received the NIA officers in his office around the 19th July 2006 as he was asked to make a statement on the issue that they dictated to him, adding that he also understood from his colleagues at the IEC that directors of finance and administration were also requested to make statements. He said he was also invited to the NIA office together with the director of finance where they met Mr. Njie. He denied forging Mr. Ndondi Njie’s signature adding that why should he forge somebody’s signature to pay for election that were meant for IEC to conduct election materials in The Gambia.

He said all the election materials ordered from Code bear the names of IEC of The Gambia. He stated that since The Gambia’s election is unique it will be very difficult to market the election materials in the sub region.
He said the IEC buys election materials to enable fulfill its mandate.
Hearing continues on 3rd August, 2007.