Two Nigerians; namely James Kazeem Sabajo and Olutoye Patrick Olaoye, were Monday arraigned before Principal Magistrate Taiwo Ade Alagbe of the Banjul Magistrates’ Court, charged with two counts of criminal offences.

On count one, the accused persons are charged with conspiracy to commit felony contrary to the laws of The Gambia. The prosecution alleged on the particulars of the offence that the accused persons in the month of May 2011 at State House in Banjul,intent to defraud, jointly conspired among themselves to write a false and misleading letter to the Office of the President with the pretext of awarding scholarship to Gambian students to study abroad.

On count two, the accused persons are charged with attempt to commit an offence contrary to the laws of The Gambia. The particulars of the offence stated that the accused persons on or about 15th May, 2012 in Banjul jointly wrote a letter to the Office of the President with the pretext of awarding scholarship to Gambian students to study abroad. The accused persons pleaded not guilty to all counts charged.

At that juncture, police prosecutor, Cadet Inspector Singhateh called his first prosecution witness, who identified himself as Kawsu Ceesay, a police officer attached to Criminal Investigation Until Interpol.

PW1 revealed that on the 5th June 2012, he was at the office when they received a letter from the Office of the President directing them to investigate into the background of the first accused, who wrote a proposal letter to the First Lady, Madam Zineb Jammeh and also claimed that he owns an enterprise in Nigeria that he (the 1st accused) brought to The Gambia to provide scholarship to Gambian students to study abroad.

According to him, the email address of the first accused was used to send a message to the chairman of the said enterprise, to request for documents for the background details of the enterprise but to no avail.

He further informed the court that the investigating officers revealed the accused persons were the ones who wrote the letter to the Office of the President.The witness identified the letter of directive from the Office of the President, the proposal letter sent to the Office of the President, two email correspondences, the investigation report, and the cautionary and voluntary statements of the accused persons and they were all tendered and admitted as exhibits. The accused persons were granted bail in the sum of D50, 000 with one Gambian surety each.

The case was adjourned to 10th July, 2012 for continuation of hearing.