Court Ordered for Kah’s Testimony in Gumbo’s Case

Gumbo Touray

Prof. Kah

Magistrate Ade Taiwo Alage yesterday ordered the prosecution to bring Professor Muhammadou M O Kah to testify in criminal case involving Gumbo Touray.

The former director of international affairs of the University of The Gambia is standing trial on allegation of giving false information to a public office.

This charge that could land Mr Touray in jail for six months stemmed from a petition he addressed to the President against the first Gambian-born Vice Chancellor of the UTG, Prof Kah.

In the said petition, Touray has allegedly claimed, among other thing that Kah is bent on appointing his relatives at that institution and has gross disregards for the university governing council.

Gumbo however denied that the information he gave against Prof Kah, following which his services were terminated, were false.

The order for Prof. Kah to testify came after the testimony of fourth state witness, Mariama John, Internal Auditor of the UTG.

“Stop scratching the surface and bring Professor Kah. Is high time for him to come and testify,” the magistrate told the state prosecutor, Sainey Joof,

Prosecutor Joof however suggested that he should be allowed to prosecute his case the way he want to.

“The charge before the court is false information and the people are watching,” the magistrate however responded. He insisted that Kah be brought to testify on next adjourned date, May 21.

This was not before the witness, Mariama John adduced in court that in 2010 she was ordered by Professor Kah to go to Senegal to purchase gowns, even though the university has a specialised purchase officer.

She affirmed that although she is the internal auditor of UTG, she has no professional qualification.

The defense lawyer at this juncture accused the witness of collaborating with Professor Kah and wasting the UTG’s money. The witness denied the allegation.

“As part of the UTG council, why didn’t you query Professor Kah’s decision about Gumbo Touray’s contract termination,” defense advanced but the witness said she was not part of the meeting.

“Why was the amount of D5 million mainly from UNDF fund and ministry of finance never tendered according to the GPPA guidelines,” Lawyer Conteh quizzed further.

“The 5 Million was given to us to develop the law faculty and The Gambia College” she replied.

Author: Binta A Bah