Mama
Sally Cham, an 18-year-old girl, died on Sunday night after she was knocked
down by a RAV 4 Jeep while she was on the way to a pharmacy to buy medicine for
her aunty.
Eyewitnesses
said the accident occurred between the hours of 9 and 10pm at Amsterdam
Junction in Bakoteh when one Pierre Sambou, about 30 years old, hit Mama Sally
and another girl who was identified as Aji Sira Njie.
Witnesses
said the two were not together; the vehicle hit Mama Sally and then Aji Sira. Aji Sira is said to be a resident of London
Corner; she was in Bakoteh to see a friend and her friends were seeing her off
when the unfortunate incident happened.
People
who saw the incident happen said the driver of the vehicle did not even stop
after hitting the two young ladies; he only stopped the vehicle at a distance
not very far from Serekunda Police Station and rushed into the station to
report himself.
“We
followed him in a taxi and by the time we got to his vehicle, he had already
rushed into the police station to report himself,” said Ousman Camara, Mama
Sally’s brother. “We found several
bottles of Beer, some empty, and we also found a-one-litre bottle of
locally-made wine which was also consumed up to halfway.”
“The
man was drunk, in fact very drunk,” he asserted.
Mama’s
brother said they also checked the registration of the vehicle and found out
that it was registered on the name of one Edward Sambou, the father of the driver,
Pierre. Edward Sambou is the
commissioner of finance at the Gambia Police Force.
Pierre
is currently under police custody while Mama Sally was laid to rest yesterday
afternoon in Bakoteh. Pierre’s father,
Mr Sambou, attended the burial.
Ousman
said the police commissioner has been with them, the family of the late Mama
Sally, since morning.
“He
joined us at the Serekunda General Hospital where the body was taken to after
the accident and he helped in arranging a vehicle to transport the dead body home,”
he said.
“I
understand he has also given D15,000 to the family towards the funeral
arrangement but I cannot confirm that because I have not personally seen the
money.”
Ousman
said even though they have taken all the initial steps to pursue the matter at
court, the family has decided to discontinue the case now.
The
late Mama Sally was a trainee nurse at the Home for the Elderly in
Bakoteh. Eyewitnesses said when the
vehicle hit her, she was rushed to the Accident and Emergency Unit of Serekunda
General Hospital.
“Not
a single qualified medical doctor was present. This nurse who seems to hate her
job spent about 5 minutes just to wear her gloves while the patient was lying
on a stretcher with broken legs and bleeding,” the witness claimed.
The
nurse’s supervisor, who came minutes later, refused to touch the body until a
police officer is present. By the time a
police got to the hospital, Mama Sally was pronounced dead, the witness added.
At
the funeral ceremony, hundreds of people, including students and several young
girls of Mama Sally’s age and old women, converged to pay their last respects
to the decease.
“This is a great loss to the entire
neigbourhood. Mama Sally was cheerful,
meek and always smiling,” a family friend, Malima Cessay, said.
At
the time of going to press, the police spokesman could not be reached for
comment on the matter.
