Culled from Pan Africa News.


The Gambian government Tuesday announced the dismissal of Pap Cheyassin
Secka from his post as Attorney General and Secretary of state for Justice,
barely one year after his appointment, official sources said in Banjul.

Joseph Henry Joof, who is president of the Gambia bar association, replaces
Secka with immediate effect.

Though the office of the President did not give reasons for Secka's sacking,
political analysts believe it has to do with the controversy that has been
rocking the Gambian judiciary under Secka's leadership.

The recent confusion generated by the report of the commission of inquiry
and coroner inquest unveiled to the public by Secka last Friday, is believed
to be the straw that broke the camel's back.

Pap Cheyassin Secka, 59, a lawyer and political scientist, formed the
National Liberation Party in 1975, and became very active in the Movement
for Justice in Africa or MOJA in its heydays in 1979.

He was arrested in 1981 for an alleged involvement in a coup attempt and
subsequently sentenced to death in 1982. The sentence was later commuted to
life imprisonment.

Following his release by the defunct government of Dawda Jawara in 1991,
Secka returned to private practice.

He was also the lawyer of the ruling APRC government until March 2000 when
he was appointed to be attorney General and secretary of state for justice.

In an interview a month after his appointment last year, Secka had said: "I
have always believed that every adversity has in it, the seed of an
equivalent advantage. My motto has always been 'a quitter never wins and a
winner never quits'".

"If tomorrow the president decides to change me, it is probably because he
has found somebody else more capable than I am".


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------