The Supreme Court of The Gambia, the highest court of the land, has been constituted to hear the election petition case filed by Gambia’s dictator Yahya Jammeh, who is contesting the outcome of the December, 1st Presidential election, in which Real Estate Developer Adama Barrow, of the opposition alliance was declared the winner of the elections, the Freedom Newspaper can reveal. Chief Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle, a Nigerian national, said the court was constituted in July of this year and it will start sitting in earnest on January, 10th 2017.

Jammeh’s election petition was briefly heard today before the Supreme court. Mr. Jammeh is alleging electoral fraud, voter intimidation among others against the Independent Electoral Commission. He wants the Supreme Court to annul the results of the elections and declare it null and void. He also wants the court to issue an order for fresh elections to be conducted by a competent and independent IEC.

Judges appointed to serve in the Supreme Court are mainly from Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, the Chief Justice said. The Chief Justice is a member of the Supreme Court Bench. He told the court on Wednesday, that the foreign judges are expected to arrive in the country before January 10th, when the court is expected to formally hear Mr. Jammeh’s election petition. </s> BANJUL (Reuters) - Gambia’s Chief Justice said on Wednesday that the Supreme Court would hear a legal challenge on Jan. 10 from President Yahya Jammeh’s ruling party which seeks to overturn the result of an election he lost this month.

Gambia has no sitting Supreme Court but Emmanuel O. Fagbenle said that judges from Nigeria and Sierra Leone had been appointed to hear the case. </s> After the case filed by Gambia's outgoing President Yahya Jammeh, who is seeking to annul the results of the country's presidential elections, was adjourned on Wednesday (21 December) by the nation's top court, Jammeh said that he would wait for the court ruling until January 10 before ceding power.

The country's apex court adjourned the case as the chief defendant of the case – Gambia's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) – had not been summoned to attend.

After staying in power for 22 years Jammeh lost the election on 1 December to opposition candidate Adama Barrow. Barrow is set to be inaugurated on 19 January.

Jammeh initially conceded the election defeat but a week later said that he rejected the results of the election and filed a court case. His petition to the court is about alleged irregularities in the ballot count by IEC and also charges that his supporters were intimidated in one region.

"My rights cannot be violated and intimidated to a point where I succumb to blackmail. Unless the court decides the case, there will be no inauguration (of Barrow) on the 19 January," the 51-year-old strong man said in a televised address.

"What we are asking for is not for the IEC (Independent Election Commission) to declare me the winner, I cannot do that. will not cheat but I will not be cheated. Justice must be done and the only way justice can be done is to reorganise the election so that every Gambian votes. That's the only way we can resolve the matter peacefully and fairly." he added.

In the monologue, he denounced the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc and other powers for intervening in Gambian political affairs. He further elaborated saying, "ECOWAS is trying to force me out. It will not happen... And let me see what ECOWAS and those big powers behind them can do."

According to an AFP report, Jammeh has bought time by taking his case to the apex court. Interestingly, all the judges of the top court except chief justice Emmanuel Fagbenle were sacked under the president's orders. And, according to court sources six foreign judges, not including chief justice Fagbenle, have been appointed by the president to serve on the apex court. Out of the seven on the panel, at least five judges will hear the petition filed by Jammeh, the AFP report added. </s> Banjul, Gambia: Longtime Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh, who initially conceded defeat in a December 1 presidential poll, has lodged a Supreme Court case to challenge the result, despite pressure from the international community for him to cede power peacefully.

The opposition in the small West African country, however, fears Jammeh will use a judicial system — considered by experts to lack independence — to give legitimacy to his attempt to hang on to power.

The ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) filed a complaint with the Supreme Court on December 13 alleging that opposition leader Adama Barrow was “not duly elected or returned as president, and that the said election was void”.

The court challenge came after Jammeh had surprised observers by conceding defeat after 22 years in power on television, before changing his mind.

It said the country’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) had violated electoral law, announced a December 5 recount without the consent of the APRC, and that its returning officers intimidated legitimate voters and turned them away on election day.

The Gambia’s Supreme Court has lain dormant since May 2015 with Chief Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle, a Nigerian, the only current sitting judge.

Judicial independence is “the exception rather than the rule,” said Niklas Hultin, an assistant professor and Africa specialist at George Mason University in the United States.

“Where the Supreme Court and other high-level courts have asserted their independence, there has usually been some kind of retribution on the part of the executive,” he added.

Jammeh fired several judges last year after they commuted the death sentences of former military officers to life imprisonment.

Jammeh needs to appoint four more Supreme Court judges for the constitutionally required panel of five to hear the challenge, and six if the decision requires a judicial review.

Complicating matters, the target of his complaint, the Independent Electoral Commission, is represented by Jammeh’s own attorney-general.

Gambia’s most influential lawyers’ group, the Bar Association, has described any future hearing as therefore “fundamentally tainted”.

A Bar Association statement said the challenge was “tantamount to one being a judge in his own cause considering that the outgoing president has already pre-empted the outcome of court process by declaring the election result as a nullity”.

President-elect Barrow says Jammeh has left cases against the government to stack up by failing to appoint justices.

“There are a pile of cases that are waiting... but he doesn’t care about it,” Barrow told AFP. “And now he has a case, if he appoints judges we will see this is personal interest, and not in the interests of justice.”

Senegalese political analyst Babacar Justin Ndiaye believes Jammeh’s aim is to obtain better terms for his exit, given the universal condemnation of his volte-face and lack of other options.

“It’s a strategy of giving him time, making the situation worse, wearing down the international community and finally to look for some sort of compromise, an arrangement,” he told AFP.

Jammeh has “played his cards well”, Ndiaye said, leveraging his continued support from important sections of the military to keep the Gambian population from taking to the streets against him.

If Jammeh wins the case at some point in the future, new elections could be called with a President Barrow in State House. That would be a “unprecedented” situation in Africa, according to Ndiaye.

The United States has said it does “not believe [the case] will be heard by a credible court dedicated to ensuring the integrity of The Gambia’s democratic process”, a reaction that was notably more hardline than the UN and regional bloc Ecowas.

“It is OK for the legal process to be going on,” the UN’s west Africa envoy Mohammad Ibn Chambas told AFP Wednesday. “That legal process has nothing to do with the term of his mandate,” he added.

Banjul-based diplomats have emphasised that the most important focus now is the handover of power still expected on January 19, rather than the outcome of the legal case that for now remains looming in the background. </s> The Gambia’s ministers for finance, foreign affairs, trade and the environment have resigned from President Yahya Jammeh’s government, according to ministry sources and state television.

The resignations were announced on Tuesday less than a day after the country’s Chief Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle pulled out of a case filed by Jammeh seeking to stop the inauguration of President-elect Adama Barrow.

Fagbenle said late on Monday that he could not hear the new case, dealing a blow to Jammeh’s efforts to halt the inauguration of Barrow, who remains in Senegal.

The inauguration is scheduled for Thursday, when Barrow is expected to return from Senegal.

“Given that the injunction affects me in my capacity as the chief justice, I will recuse myself from hearing it,” he said.

“The motion therefore waits for the constitution of the Supreme Court or allow the judges to arrive in The Gambia.”

Edward Gomez, a lawyer for Jammeh’s party, conceded that it was “certainly not possible under these circumstances” to have an injunction barring Barrow from being sworn in.

On Tuesday, Morocco’s Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar and a top secret service official arrived in The Gambian capital Banjul to hold talks with Jammeh, Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque reported from neighbouring Senegal.

There have been talks of a possible asylum or exile for Jammeh to an African country, in exchange for him stepping down.

The small West African country has been plunged into political turmoil since Jammeh disputed Barrow’s December election victory and refused to cede power.

Jammeh has lodged a challenge to the election result with The Gambia’s Supreme Court and last week filed a fresh injunction to prevent the chief justice from swearing Barrow into office.

Last week the Supreme Court said Jammeh’s challenge to the election result could not be heard for several months as it did not have a full bench, and the extra judges needed to hear the case were not available.

The Gambia relies on foreign judges, notably from Nigeria, to staff its courts due to a lack of its own trained professionals.

With tensions running high, Jammeh said on Sunday that he had spoken to Liberian leader Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and was adamant he would not budge until the Supreme Court had heard his challenge to the poll result.

“The so-called deadline of January 19, 2017, is not cast in stone and all parties shall await the outcome of the Supreme Court,” he said on state television.

Leaders of neighbouring countries and the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, have repeatedly called on the long-serving strongman to leave office peacefully, so far to no avail.

As well as Sirleaf, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Ghana’s President John Mahama, who left office 10 days ago, have appealed to Jammeh to step down twice in person, without success, most recently on Friday.

Barrow was the surprise guest at a Bamako summit over the weekend, where he was welcomed as a head of state and introduced to several world leaders.

On Sunday, a personal tragedy struck his family when his eight-year-old son Habibou died after being bitten by dogs, according to a family source.

The prospect of military intervention in The Gambia has even been floated in recent days, following declarations by the United Nations and African Union that boots on the ground could get the green light without a rapid resolution of the crisis.

The head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel said on Friday that ECOWAS would ask the Security Council to approve the deployment of troops to The Gambia if Jammeh continues to refuse to leave office.

On Friday, it was reported that the Nigerian military issued a memo to prepare 800 soldiers for a possible deployment in Gambia. There have also been reports that the Nigerian military has sought training and logistical support from British advisers before any military intervention.

Before his inauguration on Thursday, Barrow’s special adviser Mai Fatty read a statement on his behalf in Dakar, urging Gambians to “exercise restraint, observe the rule of law and not to respond to provocation” – Al Jazeera and news agencies </s> Gambia’s Chief Justice says the Supreme Court will hear a suit on January the 10th 2017 from President Yahya Jammeh’s party seeking to overturn the result of an election he lost.

Gambia has no sitting Supreme Court but Emmanuel Fagbenle said that judges from Nigeria and Sierra Leone had been appointed to hear the case.

Pending that time, President Jammeh says he will not relinquish power to Adama Barrow.

Joy Otuyinka reports that Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has condemned mediation by West African regional bloc ECOWAS that aims to get him to leave power.

His comments on state television late on Tuesday were a hardening of his position after days in which hopes mounted he could be persuaded to hand over power at the end of his mandate on January 18, when Barrow is due to be inaugurated.

Jammeh said: “They said they were going to have a meeting, in Abuja, on Saturday and they asked me whether I’d attend and I made it very clear I’m not attending, what are you sending a representative? Now, already the meeting was a formality, in fact before those people came, the ECOWAS group, you see headline saying the UN saying Jammeh must step down immediately. You’ve still got president-elect Adama Barrow saying Jammeh must step down immediately. I will not step down.”

On his part, President-elect Adama Barrow says he is confident the matter will be resolved and he will be inaugurated next month.

His words: “I believe that unity is power and the Gambian people are united. The whole world is behind us and Jammeh knows that very well. I have no doubt that there will be no problem and that I will be president on the 19th.We believe that the general communication, the door is open very, very, very soon and I think the media will be aware of it.”

Jammeh initially accepted the results of the election but reversed his position on December 9th.

He said he would challenge the election results, alleging that it was riddled with irregularities.

Jammeh is accused by human rights groups of the detention, torture and killing of perceived opponents during his 22-year rule.

The post Gambian Court to hear Jammeh legal challenge on Jan. 10 appeared first on TVCNews: Latest African breaking news, politics, business and sports. </s> The Gambia's ministers for finance, foreign affairs, trade and the environment have resigned from President Yahya Jammeh's government, according to ministry sources and state television.

The resignations were announced on Tuesday less than a day after the country's Chief Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle pulled out of a case filed by Jammeh seeking to stop the inauguration of President-elect Adama Barrow.

Fagbenle said late on Monday that he could not hear the new case, dealing a blow to Jammeh's efforts to halt the inauguration of Barrow, who remains in Senegal.

Inside Story: Can a showdown be averted in Gambia?

The inauguration is scheduled for Thursday, when Barrow is expected to return from Senegal.

"Given that the injunction affects me in my capacity as the chief justice, I will recuse myself from hearing it," he said.

"The motion therefore waits for the constitution of the Supreme Court or allow the judges to arrive in The Gambia."

Edward Gomez, a lawyer for Jammeh's party, conceded that it was "certainly not possible under these circumstances" to have an injunction barring Barrow from being sworn in.

On Tuesday, Morocco's Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar and a top secret service official arrived in The Gambian capital Banjul to hold talks with Jammeh, Al Jazeera's Nicolas Haque reported from neighbouring Senegal.

There have been talks of a possible asylum or exile for Jammeh to an African country, in exchange for him stepping down.

Political turmoil

The small West African country has been plunged into political turmoil since Jammeh disputed Barrow's December election victory and refused to cede power.

Jammeh has lodged a challenge to the election result with The Gambia's Supreme Court and last week filed a fresh injunction to prevent the chief justice from swearing Barrow into office.

Last week the Supreme Court said Jammeh's challenge to the election result could not be heard for several months as it did not have a full bench, and the extra judges needed to hear the case were not available.

The Gambia relies on foreign judges, notably from Nigeria, to staff its courts due to a lack of its own trained professionals.

With tensions running high, Jammeh said on Sunday that he had spoken to Liberian leader Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and was adamant he would not budge until the Supreme Court had heard his challenge to the poll result.

"The so-called deadline of January 19, 2017, is not cast in stone and all parties shall await the outcome of the Supreme Court," he said on state television.

Leaders of neighbouring countries and the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, have repeatedly called on the long-serving strongman to leave office peacefully, so far to no avail.

As well as Sirleaf, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Ghana's President John Mahama, who left office 10 days ago, have appealed to Jammeh to step down twice in person, without success, most recently on Friday.

Barrow was the surprise guest at a Bamako summit over the weekend, where he was welcomed as a head of state and introduced to several world leaders.

On Sunday, a personal tragedy struck his family when his eight-year-old son Habibou died after being bitten by dogs, according to a family source.

The prospect of military intervention in The Gambia has even been floated in recent days, following declarations by the United Nations and African Union that boots on the ground could get the green light without a rapid resolution of the crisis.

The head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel said on Friday that ECOWAS would ask the Security Council to approve the deployment of troops to The Gambia if Jammeh continues to refuse to leave office.

On Friday, it was reported that the Nigerian military issued a memo to prepare 800 soldiers for a possible deployment in Gambia. There have also been reports that the Nigerian military has sought training and logistical support from British advisers before any military intervention.

Before his inauguration on Thursday, Barrow's special adviser Mai Fatty read a statement on his behalf in Dakar, urging Gambians to "exercise restraint, observe the rule of law and not to respond to provocation". </s> The Gambia’s top court on Wednesday said it was adjourning until January 10 a case filed by strongman Yahya Jammeh, who is seeking to annul the results of the country’s presidential elections.

The Supreme Court, presided by Nigerian-born Chief Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle, ordered the adjournment because the chief defendant — the country’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) — had not been summonsed to attend.

Jammeh, in power for 22 years, was defeated by opposition candidate Adama Barrow in the December 1 poll.

Barrow’s inauguration is due to take place on January 19.

Jammeh initially accepted the result but then reversed position a week later, stoking international concerns about the future of the tiny west African country.

His complaint to the court is about alleged irregularities in the ballot count by the IEC and charges that in one region his supporters were intimidated.

Jammeh’s lawyer, Edward Gomez, informed the court that the IEC had not been served with a summons by Jammeh, the plaintiff.

As a result, Gomez argued, it was in the interest of justice to give time for the IEC to receive the papers requiring it to attend.

“In view of the case that the Independent Electoral Commission is not served, I hereby order that the case is adjourned till 10 January,” Judge Fagbenle announced.

Gomez told reporters afterwards: “Going to court is a right and is a process, and nobody should deny a party that right.

“That is all we are saying and at the end of the day it is the ruling of the court that matters. And I believe we will all abide by it and respect it.”

Experts say Jammeh has bought time for his bid to stay in office by taking his appeal to a court that has lain dormant since May 2015 and whose judges had been fired under Jammeh’s orders save Fagbenle.

Court sources said six foreign judges, excluding Fagbenle, have now been appointed by Jammeh to serve on the Supreme Court.

Out of the total seven judges, five would hear the petition. If a review of the decision is sought by one of the parties, the case would then be considered by the full seven-member panel, the sources said.

The post Gambia’s top court adjourns Jammeh election case until Jan 10 appeared first on The Independent Uganda:.

This post was syndicated from The Independent Uganda:. Click here to read the full text on the original website.

Also, Like us on facebook </s> With less than a week to the end of the tenure of President Yahya Jammeh, of Gambia, he has put in motion another ploy to extend his stay.

This time, his political party has filed a request with the Supreme Court for an injunction aimed at blocking the swearing in of his rival, Adama Barrow, who won the 1 December election.

The petition was filed on Thursday.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle, confirmed receipt of the petition, which was filed by Jammeh’s Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC).

“It is filed today with the court registrar,” said Fagbenle, who did not say when a decision on the petition might be made.

Barrow, who won the poll and has received the support of the international community, has said he will go ahead with his inauguration on Jan. 19 despite Jammeh’s rejection of the result.

Aziz Bensouda, the secretary general of the Gambia Bar Association, said an injunction would be unconstitutional.

“The inauguration of the president-elect should be held when Jammeh’s term officially ends. The court does not have any mandate to put an inauguration on hold,” he said.

The election defeat of Jammeh, a former coup leader, after 22 years of increasingly authoritarian rule was celebrated across the tiny West African nation, and the incumbent initially accepted the result.

However, in a U-turn a week later that drew international condemnation, he denounced what he claimed was widespread fraud.

The APRC filed a challenge to the poll results, but the Supreme Court was unable to hear the petition on Tuesday after several judges failed to show up.

The Supreme Court, which rights campaigners say is heavily influenced by Jammeh, has not sat in over a year. Two chief justices have been dismissed since 2013. One of them was jailed.

The court hired four foreign judges from Nigeria and Sierra Leone to hear Jammeh’s appeal. Legal sources said this week that the judges had not yet arrived in Gambia.

Regional bloc ECOWAS has sought to negotiate Jammeh’s peaceful departure and Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari is leading a mediation mission to Gambia today.

On Thursday, Nigeria’s lower house of parliament approved a motion to authorise Buhari to offer Jammeh asylum if he steps down.

However, ECOWAS has also hinted at possible military action if he stays beyond the end of his term in office next week, raising the prospect of violence.

The U.S. Department of State, which has already advised against travel to Gambia, warned American citizens on Thursday to avoid the capital Banjul’s city centre. Embassy staff were required to be off the streets by 6 p.m. (1800 GMT) until further notice.

The question of whether Gambia can install opposition figure Adama Barrow as president is seen as a test case for African democracy.
Gambia's Chief Justice sets January 10, 2017, for the hearing by the Supreme Court, made up of judges from Nigeria and Sierra Leone, of President Yahya Jammeh's ruling party's legal challenge of the December 1 election results.