136.
This Court in the case of JUSTICE JOSEPH WOWO V. THE
REPUBLIC OF GAMBIA (supra) in an answer to the above question on the
issue of impartiality of the judge held that:
“The question is whether a reasonable, objective and informed person
would on the correct facts reasonably apprehend that the judge has not
or will not bring an impartial mind to bear on the adjudication of the
case, that is a mind open to persuasion by the evidence and the
submission of counsel…it must be assumed that they can disabuse their
minds of any irrelevant personal beliefs or predisposition.”
137.
In the determination of the issue under this head, putting all the analysis
and case law authorities together, this Court answers in the negative that the
right thinking reasonable member of the society in the light of all the
transactions that occurred in the impeachment proceedings of the Applicant,
the Chief Justice who served as the Presiding Officer in the trial at the House
of Senate could not be said to be “unable to decide the matter impartially or
in which it may appear to a reasonable observer that the judge is unable to
decide the matter impartially”. Consequently, this Court holds that the
allegation of impartiality against the Chief Justice as the presiding judge over
the Applicant’s trial was a figment of the imagination of the Applicant, there
being no subjective or objective grounds for his apprehension of bias and
partiality, and the Court so holds.
138.
On the issue of irregularities at the trial and judgment, it is the case
of the Applicant under this head that, the trial at the House of Senate was
equally fraught with several irregularities that caused irredeemable prejudice
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