An immigration officer accused of illegally facilitating the issuance of a Gambian passport for D40,000 on Wednesday denied receiving the money as he opened his defence before the High Court.
Musa Sanyang, who is facing three counts of official corruption, abuse of office and corrupt practices, told the court that he only received D6,000 as the prescribed passport processing fee and had no dealings with the beneficiary named in the charges.
The State is represented by Counsel A. Badjie, while Counsel A. Jarju appears for the accused.
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Giving evidence in his defence, Sanyang told the court that he works at the Passport Unit of the Gambia Immigration Department.
He explained that the issuance of a passport follows several stages before the document is printed and released to an applicant.
According to him, the passports issued to Musa Camara and Mbemba Drammeh went through the normal procedures before they were printed.
He said the allocation officer is responsible for assigning and verifying new passport numbers for applicants.
Sanyang further testified that the printing officer compares the newly allocated passport number with the applicant's details to ensure they correspond.
He added that the system automatically verifies the applicant's information before the quality control officer checks all the details and clears the passport for issuance.
After printing, he said, the passports are taken to the panel, extracted from the application forms and stamped by the Gambia Immigration Department.
The accused told the court that while he was at work, Musa Camara called him to say that his travel date was approaching.
He testified that both passports were printed on 20 January 2025 and handed over to Musa Camara on the same day.
According to Sanyang, he first took photographs of the passports and sent them to Musa Camara through WhatsApp together with a voice note before later meeting him and physically handing over the documents.
He further testified that on 21 January 2025 he received a letter directing him to verify details relating to the passports that had been issued.
Sanyang said he initially could not locate Mbemba Drammeh's details and informed another officer that the information might have been among data that had been lost.
He told the court that after conducting another search, he successfully retrieved the passport details and completed the required process.
The accused further testified that he repeatedly telephoned Musa Camara after receiving instructions that the passports should be returned at the request of the Gambia Police Force.
He said Musa Camara promised to return them but later stopped answering his calls despite several attempts to reach him.
Sanyang told the court that on 2 February 2025 he received a call from officers at Bundung Police Station informing him that Musa Camara had returned and was in police custody.
He said he was asked to report to the station.
According to the accused, while at the police station Musa Camara denied knowing him and informed intelligence officers that he would not speak while Sanyang remained present.
The accused testified that he was then instructed to print the WhatsApp conversations between himself and Musa Camara after the latter denied knowing him.
Sanyang further claimed that while reading his statement, an intelligence officer, Bakary Saidykhan, informed him that Musa Camara had alleged that he had given him D40,000.
"I denied the allegation," Sanyang told the court.
He also testified that he had never met or known Mbemba Drammeh.
According to Sanyang, the only money he received from Musa Camara was D6,000, which he said was the passport processing fee.
During the proceedings, defence counsel A. Jarju applied to tender the printed WhatsApp conversations between the accused and Musa Camara as evidence.
State Counsel A. Badjie objected to the application, arguing that the document was irrelevant because it was computer-generated and had to satisfy the legal requirements governing the admissibility of electronic evidence.
He further submitted that, in the era of artificial intelligence, the document could have been fabricated and urged the court to reject the application.
Responding on a point of law, defence counsel Jarju argued that the WhatsApp conversations were not produced using artificial intelligence.
He submitted that all the certificates required by law for the admission of the document had been provided and urged the court to admit it as an exhibit.
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The court adjourned the matter to 6 July 2026 for a ruling on the admissibility of the WhatsApp conversations.
According to the indictment, Sanyang is charged with official corruption contrary to Section 86(a) of the Criminal Code. The prosecution alleges that on 20 January 2025, while serving as an Immigration Officer, he unlawfully procured and facilitated the issuance of a Gambian passport to Mbemba Drammeh for D40,000 at a time when the beneficiary's passport had been seized and was in the custody of the Gambia Police Force as part of an ongoing investigation.
He is also charged with abuse of office contrary to Section 90 of the Criminal Code for allegedly processing and facilitating the issuance of the passport despite knowing that the beneficiary's passport was under police custody.
The third charge alleges corrupt practices contrary to Section 360(a) of the Criminal Code by dishonestly facilitating the procurement of a Gambian passport for Mbemba Drammeh for D40,000 while allegedly knowing that the issuance was illegal, unauthorised and intended to defeat lawful police action.
The case was adjourned to 8 July 2026 at 9:00 a.m. for the court's ruling and the continuation of the defence case.
