Judicial review of NICH/Gegg contract granted

It was a busy in court today and following the lawsuit brought by the Mayas, Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh granted judicial review of the controversial contract between NICH President Diane Haylock and businessman David Gegg that was signed in June 2008 and came to light in December of that year. While it is a small victory for attorneys for Jaguar Paw, Elson Kaseke and Godfrey Smith, attorney for Diane Haylock and Cruise Solutions, Eamon Courtenay, was throwing punches, saying that Cruise Solutions will proceed to build the infrastructure near Jaguar Paw.

Eamon Courtenay, Attorney for Diane Haylock & Cruise Solutions
“The board has said they are going to re-execute the contract. So very shortly they are going to put the stamp and two people are going to sign it. The construction will be completed, the infrastructure will be available to the public and everything is going to continue as if this big case had not come forth.”

Jose Sanchez
“So you’re saying at this point, the court is wasting it’s time no matter the outcome?”

Eamon Courtenay
“I’m not saying the court is wasting its time. I’m saying Jaguar Paw is wasting the court’s time in coming to court, saying to the court that they want a contract executed in a particular way. And the defendant is saying I’m going to execute it in the way that you want and they are still saying they want to go to court.”

Jose Sanchez
“Mr. Kaseke, he applied for judicial review, on what grounds did he get it?”

Eamon Courtenay
“As I said, he is representing Miss Dona Young, not even Jaguar Paw who owns the land. Miss Young, being Dona Young, doesn’t even own the land, so I don’t know what she is claiming about. She is not a party to any contract. She has not a single cent in this dollar. But because we had taken an objection to show that she had instituted this claim in the name of Jaguar Paw without the authority of her board of directors, she quickly got some letters after the fact saying that “we now give you retroactive approval”. But in the meantime she hurriedly jumped up and said “I want to do the case”. Long and short of this Jose, is that it is a song and dance about a political difference between Minister Cardona and Miss Haylock. The whole thing has been blown out of proportion, wasting the courts time over a very, very unimportant political difference between two people who are members and supporters of the government. It is regrettable, it is regrettable that we are using the courts time to fight a political battle. The truth of the matter is, if this contract was improperly executed—not executed improperly but you sign it the wrong way—they could easily say you signed it the wrong way, sign it the correct way. And that’s what the board has said, we’re going to sign it the correct way. So this song and dance is over nothing. I will advise miss Haylock, my client, that she should have the contract re-executed and re-executed very quickly so that this whole , I don’t want to call it a joke, but it is really a joke, can be over and done. It’s a waste of court time.”