As a follow up to early unconfirmed reports from Banjul of Sait Matty Jaw and others’ being arrested and detained at the Mile II central prison, Gainako can now officially confirmed that Mr. Jaw a Gambian Social Justice Activist along with one Seth Yaw Kandeh a Ghanaian national and Mr Olufemi Erinli Titus a Nigerian national were both arraigned before the Banjul Magistrate’s court and charged with two counts of “disobedience of statutory duty, two counts of conspiracy to commit misdemeanor and failure to register a business” contrary to laws of the Gambia.
The charges were read before the accused presided by Magistrate Samsideen Conteh who remanded them at the Mile II prison. It was not clear if the accused were represented by an attorney or if they pleaded one way or another. Further reliable information from our sources in Banjul stated that the three were working on registering a Human Rights organization in Gambia which has branches in Nigeria and Ghana. The three were engaged in extensive consultation to register the business in Banjul and set up an office in the country.
It is a requirement for all investors or businesses planning to operate in the Gambia to go through the Gambia Investment and export promoting agency (GIEPA). The Gambia Investment & Export Promotion Agency (GIEPA) is the national agency established by an Act of Parliament in July 2010 responsible for the promotion and facilitation of private sector investments into The Gambia. This agency was set up by the Jammeh government to ensure that all businesses are licensed before doing business in the country.
What is not clear in this case is whether Sait and his team were first doing consultations before deciding to register the company in the Gambia. It is also evident that the Gambia is hostile to human rights groups and that could have contributed to the hesitance for these people to go through GIEPA. It would make sense for any organization trying to set up business in the nation to first engage in consultation to ensure that they are in fact doing the right thing. However, in a country like the Gambia where everything is tightly controlled by the office of the President, there is some element of risk to even engage in consultations prior to registering a business in the country. Opponents have alleged that due to the heavy involvement of the President into private businesses he wanted to make sure that he knows all businesses that are set up to operate in the Gambia thus the creation of GIEPA.
Gainako will closely follow this case and keep readers updated on the developments or lack thereof in Banjul. One thing we noticed was that this time these people were arraigned before a court of law within 72 hours of Sait Matty’s Arrest. It should be noted though the other two foreign nationals have been in detention since November 6th which far exceeds the constitutional requirements to detain someone before arraigning them in a competent court of law.