{{President Yahya Jammeh has appointed a Nigerian man as Gambia’s top judge after sacking the only woman to have held the post, his office said on Thursday.}}<\/p>\n
Emmanuel Fagbenle takes the role of “acting chief justice”, according to a presidential statement, after Ghanaian-born Mabel Yamoa Agyemang was “relieved of her appointment” without explanation on Monday.<\/p>\n
The brief communique gave no biographical details for Fagbenle, although he has been cited by local media as presiding over many high-profile cases in recent years and was sworn in as a Court of Appeal justice five years ago, according to a government release dated from 2009.<\/p>\n
Agyemang replaced another Nigerian, Joseph Wowo, who became mired in a bribery scandal in July last year and was jailed on a string of corruption charges in January.<\/p>\n
She had been practising law in Gambia since 2004, when she was appointed as an expert appeal court judge after working in her native Ghana.<\/p>\n
The president regularly reshuffles his cabinet and judiciary in what many observers say is a sign of insecurity and runs several key ministries himself, including defence and religious affairs.<\/p>\n
Jammeh sacked five cabinet ministers in August as part of a ruthless shake-up of the government which saw his justice minister lose her job.<\/p>\n
Jammeh, who has ruled mainland Africa’s smallest country with an aura of mysticism and an iron fist since seizing power in 1994, vowed ahead of his swearing-in for a fourth term in 2012 to eradicate corruption.<\/p>\n
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