The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that candidates who registered for the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) can now print their examination notification slips.

The board disclosed this in a statement signed by its Public Communication Adviser, Fabian Benjamin, on Thursday in Abuja.

Benjamin said the examination would commence on April 16, urging candidates to print their slips to confirm their examination date, venue and time.

He advised candidates to visit the board’s website, www.

According to him, candidates are encouraged to print the slips early and familiarise themselves with their examination centres ahead of the examination date to avoid inconvenience.

He said each candidate had been assigned a specific examination schedule, adding that candidates should arrive at their centres ahead of time to allow for proper screening and accreditation before the commencement of the examination.

Benjamin added that enhanced security measures had been introduced for the 2026 UTME to curb examination malpractice.

He warned candidates and centre operators to desist from any form of misconduct, stressing that strict sanctions would be applied against offenders.

British barrister Martin Hackett has been appointed as The Gambia’s first special prosecutor to try those responsible for human rights abuses carried out during the 22-year rule of ex-President Yahya Jammeh, which ended when he went into exile in 2017.

Hackett will head a newly created office charged with dealing with the cases from a period characterised by widespread repression, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) was set up to document the extent of the alleged abuses.

In its final report, handed to current President Adama Barrow in 2021, it identified those most responsible and recommended their prosecution.

The TRRC, which heard harrowing testimony from victims, former security operatives and other witnesses, also called for reparations to be paid to the victims, warning that failure to act risked entrenching impunity.

The TRRC has started phased compensation payments, starting with victims of abuses committed shortly after the 1994 coup when Jammeh first came to power.

But for many survivors, financial compensation is secondary to accountability.

Among the most notorious cases highlighted by the TRRC were the 2004 killing of journalist Deyda Hydara and the murder of more than 50 mainly West African migrants, executed by security forces after being wrongly accused of plotting a coup.

A handful of perpetrators have already been convicted abroad under the principle of universal jurisdiction, including former members of the notorious paramilitary unit and death squad known as “the Junglers” – some of whom have been jailed in Germany and the US.

The appointment of Hackett, who has previously served at the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon and who investigated war crimes committed by senior military commanders during the Kosovo war, is seen as a decisive step towards domestic accountability.

Attorney General Dawda Jallow was quoted as saying that Hackett had a four-year mandate and was chosen from a wide selection of candidates.

Jammeh, who refused to co-operate with the TRRC, only left power at the insistence of regional leaders.

They sent in troops to The Gambia when he refused to step down after his shock election defeat in December 2016.

Now aged 60, Jammeh has previously denied wrongdoing and is believed to be living in exile in Equatorial Guinea.

Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, sentenced a Boko Haram victim, Ali Kolo, to nine years’ imprisonment after over a decade in detention, but ordered his immediate release.

Kolo, who was shot in the right leg by Boko Haram insurgents in Borno State while attempting to report their activities to the military, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about the terrorist group to security agencies.

He was arraigned by the Federal Government on four counts but pleaded guilty to a single charge bordering on concealment of information on terrorist activities.

The prosecution counsel, David Kaswe, told the court that the defendant, in 2017, failed to relay information on insurgents’ activities to the military or any security agency, contrary to the provisions of the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act, 2013.

Kaswe, a Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Justice, tendered the defendant’s extra-judicial statement and an investigation report, both of which indicted him. The exhibits were admitted without objection from defence counsel, A.O. Usman.

The prosecution subsequently urged the court to impose a 10-year jail term on the defendant, citing his guilty plea and confessional statement.

However, Kolo told the court that he was attacked and shot with an AK-47 rifle while on his way to report the insurgents, leaving him hospitalised and unable to fulfil the obligation.

His counsel pleaded for leniency, arguing that his failure to report the terrorists was due to circumstances beyond his control.

In his judgment, Justice Lifu agreed that the defendant failed to report the activities of the insurgents but held that the omission was influenced by factors beyond his control.

The judge sentenced him to nine years’ imprisonment but ruled that the sentence should take effect from 2017, when he was first detained.

He noted that the convict had already spent over 10 years in custody and ordered his immediate release to enable him to seek medical attention for injuries sustained during the attack.

Despite reservations expressed by the prosecution, the court maintained that Kolo was not convicted for terrorism or membership of a terrorist group, but solely for concealment of information.

Justice Lifu held that the defendant had “suffered enough” and warned that continued detention would amount to double jeopardy.

In a related development, the court sentenced a Borno State-based bricklayer, Ibrahim Buba, also known as Baba Gana, to 10 years’ imprisonment for failing to disclose information on Boko Haram activities.

Buba admitted in court that he knew two members of the terrorist group but failed to report them. He told the court that he fled from Borno to Mubi in Adamawa State and later relocated to Onitsha, Anambra State, where he was arrested in 2023.

He pleaded for leniency, but the court sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment, rejecting the prosecution’s request for a 20-year term.

Justice Lifu ordered that the sentence should take effect from March 24, 2023, the date of his arrest and detention.