Former Bundung Magistrates’ Court Principal Magistrate Pa Modou Njie has been charged with drug trafficking and official corruption and has been arraigned before the Banjul High Court Annexe.
Due to what the court considered to be a lack of diligent prosecution, Njie’s case was dismissed after he had previously been arraigned before the Bundung Magistrates’ Court. But now that the State Law Office has submitted a bill of indictment, the charges have been brought before the top court, which is being presided over by Justice Sonia Akinbiyi.
Njie is accused in the first accusation of dealing in illegal narcotics, which is against Section 33(d) of the Drug Control Act and is penalized under Section 33(3)(b). The prosecution claims that Njie possessed 104 blocks of cocaine between August 16 and August 22, 2023, when he was the Principal Magistrate at the Bundung Magistrates’ Court. The State asserts that these blocks were drug exhibits that were forfeited in the DLEAG v. Abdoulie Saidyba and Ndey Jatta case. According to the charges, Njie stole the medications by pretending to be an exhibit keeper without the proper authorization.
Pa Modou Njie is charged with a second count of official corruption under Section 86(a) of the Criminal Code in addition to the drug-related indictment. According to the State, on October 16, 2024, Njie asked and accepted D70,000 from a man named Michael Ezee, also referred to as the “Chairman,” in return for influencing his rulings in criminal cases that he was then in charge of. The claims against the former magistrate, who occupied a prominent position in the nation’s judiciary, are made much more serious by the bribery charge.
The issue is still being investigated, and Njie’s defense team has not yet addressed the accusations.
As the nation struggles with the problems of drug trafficking and corruption that have long afflicted its governmental institutions, the court proceedings are anticipated to garner a lot of attention.
