If records are anything to go by one could describe Gambian law makers as law breakers.

At least four Member of Parliament from the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction (APRC) in the Gambia have been convicted of the criminal offense over the past seventeen years.

Convicts includes Baba Jobe; former majority leader of the of National Assembly and member for Jarra west constituency in the lower River Region of the country; Ouly Taal a nominated member; Musa Susso former national assembly member for Kombo North and Dawda Manneh former National Assembly Member for Nianija Constituency in the Central River Region of the country.

In spite of his claim for transparency and fight against corrupt practices detrimental to the countries President Yahya Jammeh’s allies in the ruling clique continues to be found guilty of crimes against the state. Such crime includes economic crime; giving false information; theft and drug trafficking.

The latest conviction Dawda Manneh, former National Assembly Member for Nianija Constituency in the Central River Region, and one Demba Baldeh to 10-year imprisonment by the Banjul Magistrates Court after being found guilty drug trafficking and conspiracy has brought the numbers convicted law makers to four since the advent of the Jammeh regime 17 years ago.

The former MP and co convict were also fined D1 million each equivalent to $ US34,245 in default to serve another six years imprisonment, for the offences of conspiracy and trafficking in cannabis, a prohibited drug.

The court also ordered that the vehicle of Manneh, a Pajero BJL 5253 D where the suspected cannabis was found, be forfeited to the state.
The court further announced that the sentences should start from the date of their arrest.

The convicts were said to have conspired and engaged in trafficking 9 kilograms and 260 grams of a suspected drug, cannabis, in 2008.


Musa Suso, former National Assembly member for Kombo North, was convicted twice. He was first found guilty of drug trafficking in 2002 with his accomplice Ndeneh Faal a businessman.
Mr. Faal, Mr. Musa Suso, the former Kombo North parliamentarian and Victoria Goddard, a beautician, were in 2000 arrested by the police at a police post in Yundum whilst trying to smuggle a large quantity of cannabis sativa, locally called jamba, through Banjul International Airport.
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The embattled former law maker was convicted for second to 18 months imprisonment without any option of a fine.
Mr. Musa Suso fought multiple charges for about a year but was found orchestrated malicious allegations calculated to damage the reputation of his jailers while in prisons.


On 23rd January 2009 Lamin George, senior magistrate at the Banjul Magistrates Court, first time convicted and sentenced Oley Sey, a former female nominated member of the National Assembly, and Abdourahman Bah, coordinator of the James Junkung Jammeh Memorial Nursery School in Abuko a suburb located about 15 kilometers North of Banjul, to 6 months mandatory imprisonment.

The senior magistrate also fined the two D25, 000 each equivalent to $US 841.583 and ordered them to pay a compensatory D100, 000. In addition to that, the magistrate ordered that the D300, 000 equivalent to $US10, 097 recovered from the two accused persons be returned to the James Junkung Jammeh Memorial Nursery School in Abuko with immediate effect.


The late Baba K Jobe former Majority leader and who was also close ally of the late Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi convicted and jailed on 26th March 2004 by Justice MA Paul for nine years in prison for after being found guilty of economic crime. Mr. Jobe had since then been serving his sentence at the State Central Prison Mile 2 but died during the last days of his prison sentence.