Court to decide fate of Lands Department senior officials

By KARO JESSE
THE Supreme Court will decide today at 1.30pm whether two Lands Department senior officers can enjoy Christmas and New Year in the freedom of their home or be locked up in jail.
Both were released on temporary bail at a late court sitting on Wednesday night.
The decision today will be on whether to grant bail to the pair, who were convicted on Monday for contempt of court. Benjamin Samson, secretary of the Lands Department, and his deputy Oswald Tolopa were held responsible by the National Court for the department’s failure to serve files to the court.
It is understood that the court needed a file called land administration file from the department to help its proceedings over a disputed piece of land at Hohola.
Failure by the department not serving the file to the court on time saw them arrested and convicted on Monday on contempt charges, after Deputy Chief Justice Ambeng Kandakasi issued a bench warrant against them.
Judge Panuel Mogish decided at around 8pm on Wednesday, using the court’s discretion, to release the officers temporarily and further stayed the proceedings before the court, as time did not allow him to thoroughly assess the entire case.
The legal year closes today.
Lawyer representing the officers, Grace Nindil-Awesa, from the Solicitor-General’s office, appealed to the court that both men be granted bail because both were long service members of the department and were respected citizens, family men and first-time offenders.
She explained that the department needed both officers to address some pressing issues before the year closed for Christmas.
Nindil-Awesa said the file requested by court was not served on time because it was the department’s privilege document which required certain procedures to be followed to acquire and the National Court was also not specific of the file it needed.
Justice Mogish needed time to assess the entire case before making a ruling on bail applications because the duo were already convicted.