Manyang Sanyang and Oumie Ceesay were yesterday, Thursday July 9, 2009 arraigned before Justice Joseph Wowo of the High Court on 15 counts of economic crimes.

According to the particulars, the two accused persons and others now at large between January and December 2006 in Sanyang village, as employees of the Sanyang VISACA, a community bank company funded by the government of The Gambia, recklessly caused the loss of one million dalasis (D1,000,000.00) being a loan procured by the government of The Gambia from IFAD for the bank.

The particulars further stated that the accused persons between January and December 1999, recklessly caused the loss of D86,618.00 to the bank.
Between January to December 2001, the two caused the loss of D129,732.38 to the bank; in 2002 January to December, they caused the loss of D281,442.28; in 2003 the two caused the loss of D826,382.72; in 2004 January to December, they caused the loss of D582,965.32, in 2005, the loss of D227,368,31, in 2006 the loss of D343,861.12.

The particulars also disclosed that the 2nd accused, Oumie Ceesay, on 26th June 2006, in Sanyang, received the sum of D2,200 being a loan repayment to the said VISACA bank from one Samseendeen Sambou and fraudulently omitted to record the receipt of the money into the bank book and in August 2006, she also fraudulently committed to personal use, the sum of D7,000 being loan repayment to the bank by one Ebrima Arfang Sanneh, by fraudulently omitting to enter the receipt of the said money into the bank records.

When the matter was mentioned yesterday, principal state counsel S.H. Barkum intimated to the court that he had 5 witnesses and was ready to proceed.
The presiding judge, Justice Wowo, informed the court that the 1st accused Manyang Sanyang just got a lawyer yesterday and her lawyer had informed the court that he needed ample time to study the case before they could proceed with the hearing of the matter.

The case was adjourned to July 29, 2009 for definite hearing.