Prosecution ordered to be specific with request In Alagie Jobe's Case

By Rohey Jadama Magistrate M.L. Bojang of the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court yesterday, 11 February 2015, ordered the prosecutor to specify the names of all the documents he needs from the defence in the False Information case involving one Alagie Jobe, an employee of Kombo Beach Hotel. When the case was called, Louis Gomez announced his appearance for the Inspector General of Police (IGP) whilst Segga Gaye appeared for the accused. The prosecutor told the court that he had filled a notice for the defence to produce original copies of all the documents they have in their possession. Reacting to the request of the prosecution, the defence counsel argued that the letter was not specific as far as he is concerned because it did not mention the names of the documents being requested by the prosecution. He said the notice is vague as it only states “any document.” The trial magistrate concurred with the defence that the prosecutor should have mentioned or listed the documents he is requesting. The prosecutor said the case involves many documents and that the defence knows the documents he is referring to. “My lord, this notice is telling us to disclose all our documents through the back door and that is not going to happen,” said defence counsel Gaye. The trial magistrate, in his ruling, ordered the prosecution to file another notice and serve both the court and the defence and to specify the documents he needs. Alagie Jobe is facing a single count of ‘False Information.’ The prosecution alleges that sometime in the month of March 2013, Mr. Jobe gave ‘False Information’ to the office of the president indicating that he was employed by Kombo Beach Hotel from 2004 to 2011 and was never made a permanent staff and that when his house got burnt on the 4^th April, 2011, he was never compensated or paid his salary for that month.  ]]>