Bar Assoc President 'dismayed' Over Justice Minister's Silence on Appointment of New Cj

Nenneh MC Cham, the president of Gambia Bar Association has expressed disappointment with the Attorney General and of Justice Minister Dawda Jallow for refusing to reply to the lawyers’ observation on the appointment of new chief justice Edrissa MO Faal who was sworn in last Friday.

Cham said following the reported appointment of Mr Faal, the Bar Association wrote to President Barrow, Justice Minister Jallow and the Judicial Service Commission raising concerns over Mr Faal’s eligibility to replace retired chief justice Hassan B Jallow.

According to Cham, only the JSC acknowledged receipt of the Bar’s letter. “But we did not receive a single response either orally or in writing from both the president and the attorney general. After two weeks, we wrote back to the attorney general seeking a confirmation from him on whether the appointment has taken place but until today we did not receive a single response from him. We did that because the attorney general is the chief legal adviser of the government and in any such appointment would be presumed to have his input or advise as to whether or not it is in accordance with the law. But it was complete silence from him,” Cham told West Coast radio. 

“I feel very surprised and disappointed that the attorney general did not see it fit to respond to us or even call us in. There is a crisis and you are pretending there is no crisis, we are saying there is a crisis. He could have called us and we talked about this but the complete silence is what has brought us to where we are,” she stated.

Nenneh revealed that the Bar has filed a case at the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the appointment as a last resort due to the failure of the appointing authority to engage with them. She added that until this matter, the relationship between the bar and AG was good.