YJ, and Dampha
 
A Constitution is supposed to embody the overarching philosophy of governance in a polity, and would ordinarily not embody express provisions on the kind of activity in question. Nevertheless, The 1997 Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia ("the Constitution") attempts to micromanage Gambian public affairs in an unacceptable manner, and therefore incorporates material that do not properly belong in the supreme law of the country. A short answer to you query is that there is nothing in the Constitution pertaining what Dampha refers to as "Criminal Charmed".
 
I must however clarify the relationship between the Constitution, and law, and lawfulness, in general. I think the crux of your query deals with the question of whether a law on the "Criminal Charmed" is lawful, i.e., whether anyone should be prosecuted for a charge under this heading. At its Section 7, the Constitution itself recognises the existence of other sources of law in the Gambia: Acts of the National Assembly; common law and principles of equity; customary law; Sharia law; etc. 
 
I should also state that the legislative power of the Gambia resides in the National Assembly, giving the body the legal authority to enact laws subsidiary to the Constitution. Section 100 of the Constitution states that "the legislative power of The Gambia shall be exercised by Bills passed by the National Assembly and assented to by the President". To be lawful, legislation must not conflict with the Constitution, or the offending subsidiary law would, under Section 4, be "void" to "the extent of the inconsistency". 
 
The story you are alluding to is both unclear, and slim on detail, but it must be recognised that the Government viewed it sufficiently seriously to warrant the Director of Public Prosecutions ("DPP")  making a personal appearance to advocate the State's case before the Banjul Magistrates' Court. Going by the story, the prosecution is by inference to another section of the Criminal Code as there appears to be no direct section of the Code on point. This is part of the reason why the defence made a no case submission. I think the defence was right, and the prosecution is a clear abuse of judicial process. 
 
Your query persuaded me to return to the story, and I must tell you that this is a very important case to the State, i.e., to Professor Jammeh. As far as the State is concerned, talk about "jujus", "guns", "10 gallant men", "financier", and other code words like "protection", and "armed security force", is suggestive of a conspiracy to attack the Government. This is the only reason why the State would engage in such a baseless prosecution, why a legal officer at the level of the DPP would himself appear, and why the Magistrate did not throw it out on first mention. 
 
There is no law on what you refer to as "Criminal Charmed", and the prosecution is clearly unlawful, but public unlawfulness no longer counts for anything in Banjul. 
 
Welcome to the bizarre world of Gambian public life.
 
 
 
 
 
LJDarbo
 
 
 
State Fires Back in Juju Case
  
africa » gambia


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The State has replied to the No-Case submission made by the defence in the ongoing criminal charm case against Abdoulie Oseh Corr, Alassan Mbowe and Babucarr Njie.
The trio are standing trial at the Banjul Magistrates’ Court before Principal Magistrate Edrissa Mbai on charges of attempting to acquire a criminal charm for malefactor, offering criminal charm for reward and conspiracy to commit a felony. Both deny the charges.
In his submission, the Director of Public Prosecution, R.N Chenge, submitted that the prosecution had made a prima-facie case to all the accused persons which required the court to call them to enter into their defence. He submitted that any person who made charms for the protection of power committed an offence, adding that ‘making’ means ‘causing to exist’. He said those making juju include those who caused to exist and in this case the prosecution had established a prima-facie case against the accused persons.
DPP Chenge further submitted that the 1st accused financed the juju man’s trip from Sierra-Loene to The Gambia to make jujus according his specification. He said he put PW1 inside a hotel and later took him to the 3rd accused house were the 2nd accused was present. He added that the accused persons caused the jujus to exist and intended to protect the power against gunfire and that has the power to protect against that malefactor. He said what the prosecution needs was the quality and not whom the juju was protecting and that the quality of the juju was to protect. He adduced that what the prosecution established was that the jujus for the protection of gun fire, adding that the prosecution had even when further to prove that the jujus was to be use by some malefactor. He said the prosecution had also established that the jujus were for the 10 gallant men and when the accused told PW1 that the jujus was for the 10 gallant men, PW1 knew the meaning
 of 10 gallant men. He stated that the accused persons did not belong to any legitimate armed security force of the country whom are they fighting. He asked what lawful business were they doing which they did not want the NIA to know, adding that the accused persons had questions to explain and that they should be called to enter into their defence. He said the prosecution had stated in it case what is meant by 10 gallant men and now is for the accused to explain what they mean by 10 gallant men if they had any. DPP Chenge submitted that it was in the evidence of the prosecution witnesses that the accused persons met to bring the jujus. He said according to the 2nd accused they have a financier for these jujus and therefore the accused persons had a case to answer. He said the accused persons had done all the stages with regard to the jujus only to be tested when they were arrested.
DPP Chenge finally urged the court to overrule the defence no-case submission and called on the accused persons to enter a defence.
The case was at length adjourned until 20th January 2009 for ruling. 
Author: Modou Sanyang

--- On Thu, 15/1/09, Y Jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Y Jallow <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Re-Juju Hoax
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Thursday, 15 January, 2009, 10:33 PM

Hi Dampha,

Thanks for bringing this up. Like you, I never remember coming across
such a stipulation in the Gambian Constitution, however, I do not
believe there is any such clause. LJD is here with us, probably upon
time conveniene, he can help explain this to us.

That said, Jammeh will be the first victim of this law if it is in
existence because he is a devil worshipper. Your naration is accurate,
in that according to a visiting friend of mine from the Gambia, a
visiting magician from Freetown touched on a boy during the said
festival in Kanillai, it gave the image of Jammeh. Jammeh declared him
his personal marabout. He instructed his boys that any time the
marabout sets foot in the Gambia, he (Jammeh) should be notified. Two
guys from Serrkunda invited this guy for some work, and upon the guy's
arrival at Banjul Int' airport, the boys phoned Oga to notify him. Oga
instructed them to follow the man's destination. Upon arrival, the two
that invited the magician were arrested for sharing marabout with
Professor Jammeh. I cannot ascertain if the two are related in any
way.

You shouldn't at all and never be surprised. Foroyaa has a word for
it. It is called "IMPUNITY."
A friend once told me "dictators don't trust even their shoes."
The
noise from their shoes will scare them to death, because they think
their alleged foes are after them always. The state of complexity is
very sad and unfortunate. That is where Jammeh happens to find
himself.


Regards, & happy new year.

yj






On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 6:01 PM, lamin dampha <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> YJ, colleagues
>
> As am not familiar with the constitution of our country,i just want to ask
> whether there  is a clause in the constitution thats talks about (Criminal
> Charmed).I have never heard this kind of charges in my life time.These
> peoples are being charged for making a criminal charmed and to my suprised
> the marabout who made the charmed is being freed and allowed to return to
> freetown.
> This young marabout was seen on GRTS participating in the cultural
> week during the last roots festival at kanilai, he was present doing his
> magic things in front of the president.The reason for the arrest of these
> peoples really disturb and makes us worried, especially the arrest of the
> goldsmith Mr mbowe for just selling them silver or gold.
>
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-- 
yj

There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger.

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