Nigerian-born legal practitioner and jurist, Joseph Wowo, made double histories with 29 days, in 2013. 13 years after he joined the Gambian Bench, he was appointed the Chief Justice of the country on June 20, 2013 by then President Yahaya Jammeh. 29 days after, he was removed from office by the same Jammeh, making him the Chief Justice with one of the shortest tenures ever in history. The Nigerian was accused of being caught on tape, soliciting a bribe of 500,000 Dalasi (about US $8,300) from a Dutch businessman, to alter the course of justice in a land matter. In January 2014, he was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison, by the Special Criminal Court in Banjul, but a global outcry forced the government to grant him a State Pardon.
A sore point of his trial was the revelation that Justice Emmanuel Nkea who found him guilty, was undergoing a corruption hearing before the same Wowo, before tables turned, occasioning widespread cynicism.
Wowo was resolute about clearing his name and dragged the country leadership before the ECOWAS court, which found his removal and incarceration unlawful and awarded $200,000 damages in favour of the jurist. The reprieve came on February 27, 2019, five years after his wrongful termination. Even for him, the wheels of justice still rolled slowly.
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