By Buba Gagigo
Official documents obtained by Kerr Fatou have indicated that Mayor Talib Bensouda’s mother and her law firm have submitted a notice of contract termination to the Kanifing Municipal citing the relationship between the firm and the Lord Mayor as the reason for contract termination sometime in 2018 and this notice was honoured by a council resolution dated May 30th 2018, effectively removing the firm as legal retainer for KMC.
Resolution fourteen of KMC’s 30th May 2018 resolution states:
“Whereas members want to avoid a potential conflict of interest regarding Amie Bensouda & Co LP, who are the external-retained lawyers of council. Whereas the aforementioned law firm submitted notice of termination of their contract due to the relationship that exists between the firm and the Lord Mayor. Whereas the aforementioned Law firm wants to allow the council to choose a new legal adviser.
“Resolved that Amie Bensouda and Co LP be allowed to continue representing Council As they have agreed to serve the notice period at no cost to council and also assist the institution in that period to build an internal legal unit as well as hire new external advisers,”
Commenting on the issue while speaking to Star Fm radio on Wednesday, the Mayor of Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) described the allegations as lies.
“All they are alleging is a lie, and they are continuing to lie. Someone said my mom is the lawyer of KMC and everyone knew that she served as KMC lawyer a long time ago, and she was appointed by Mayor Yankuba Colley. That is more than ten years now. And my mom was removed as KMC lawyer in May 2018 when I came into office. She was removed during our first council resolution. I was the one who raised the issue. I said I am the mayor, given the apparent conflict of interest, we removed them and brought Yassin Senghore. Even the last Supreme Court case that we won, it was Yassin Senghore and Abdoulie Fatty who represented us,” the mayor said