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Gambia: 3 Convicted for Illegal Petroleum Possession

Demba Sallah, Jimbal Touray and Kebba Bah were on Tuesday May 22, convicted and sentenced to D5,000 or, in default, to serve one year imprisonment each by Senior Magistrate Amina Saho-Ceesay of the Bundung Magistrates' Court for violating section 27 (1) and 26 of the Petroleum Regulation Act.

According to the particulars of the offence, on April 15, 2007 at Nema kunku, in the Kanifing Municipality, Demba Sallah was found in possession of 160 litres of gas oil and 40 litres of kerosene without lawful authority.

Count two stated that, on May 6, 2007, at Sanchu Alhagie, Jimbal Touray was found in possession of D1,200 litres of gas oil without lawful authority.

In the same vein, one Kebba Bah was also found in possession of 70 litres of gas oil in the Kanifing Municipality of the Republic of The Gambia.

All of them pleaded guilty to the offence.

In their mitigation plea, the three begged the court to have mercy on them, saying they are husbands and fathers.

Magistrate Amina Saho Ceesay in her ruling said, "you must have authorisation in dealing with the highly inflammable liquid (petroleum) or be able to have a proper storage facility because in the case of fire incident a whole neighbourhood could perish."

She then fined them each to the sum of D5,000 or, in default, serve one year jail term each.

Sergeant 489 Jahateh stood in for the IGP.