A judgment date has been set in the criminal trial of ex-Supt Manlafi Sanyang, the former controller of government vehicles, who has been standing trial on charges of theft and abuse of office.

Senior Magistrate Kayode Olajubutu ruled that he would deliver his judgement on the matter on August 12. The magistrate reached this decision following the addresses by both the state and defence counsel.

The state counsel, Buba Bojang, said the accused person was a police officer posted at State House as a government vehicle controller. The accused, he said, is not affiliated with any political party and therefore cannot employ anyone and pay them a salary, alluding to the testimony of the second defence witness, Malang Dampha, who informed the court that his salary was paid by the accused as a driver of one of the procured vehicles for the presidential campaign in 2001.

"The accused cannot employ or pay anybody," said Bojang. He said whether the vehicle in question is number A or B was not the issue, stressing that the question was the ownership of the vehicle. He said the accused did not call any witness from the Youth Development Enterprise (YDE) to disprove the government's ownership of the said vehicle (BJL 4591A).

He informed the court that they are also adopting the address made on the no-case-submission, saying that the prosecution has proven its case beyond all reasonable doubts.

In his address, the defence counsel, Lawyer Camara, told the court that the prosecution had failed "woefully" to prove its case beyond all reasonable doubts. According to him, the prosecution witnesses (PW1 and PW2) had not tendered any genuine document to prove that the vehicle in question was the property of The Gambia government.

"The prosecution tendered Exhibit A1 to support that the vehicle was transfered from the Immigration Department to the Youth Development Enterprise (YDE)," he said, adding that this exhibit has no probative value.

He informed the court that government vehicles do not pay for any registration number and insisted that there was no evidence to prove that the vehicle was stolen.

He therefore urged the court to acquit and discharge the accused person. He added that the vehicle in question is a property of the defunct Youth Development Enterprise, which was a private entity. He argued that the said vehicle was the subject of investigation by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in 2003.

Defence Lawyer Camara further argued that the evidence of the prosecution was "very inconsistent and controversial".

It could be recalled that Supt Manlafi Sanyang was arrested and detained by State security agents for an alledged involvement in a vehicle theft at State House. He was later charged for theft and abuse of office, contrary to the laws of The Gambia.