Abdoulie Mbye alias Efry Mbye, a resident of Banjulinding
village in the West Coast Region, yesterday opened his defense in the ongoing
trial involving him and Momodou Lamin Jarju alias Rongo, at the Banjul
Magistrates’ Court before Principal Magistrate Alagbe Ade Taiwo.
Rongo and Mbye are being tried for the offences of giving false information, making false documents, uttering false documents and prohibition of conduct conducive to a breach of the peace.
Testifying, Efry Mbye told the court that he resides in Banjulinding in the West Coast Region.
“I was accused of giving false information, making false documents, uttering false documents and prohibition of conduct conducive to a breach of the peace, which was all false,” he added.
He told the court that he had no time with anybody in Banjulinding, apart from the Jarju-kunda family.
Mbye denied conspiring with the 1st accused person, and denied ever writing a letter together with the 1st accused person, or taking a letter to the Office of the President.
He admitted that he took the letter to Pa Malick Faye, the Managing Director of the Daily Observer for publication, when he was on a personal mission around Jimpex, in Kanifing.
He said the testimonies of Eric Tunde Janneh and Yaya Bah, the imam of Banjulinding that he and the 1st accused person jointly wrote a letter to the Office of the President, was not true.
Mbye added that the only relationship he had with Rongo was that, as a musician when he writes his song he normally gave it to him to check it for him, as he (Rongo) was more educated than him.
Under cross-examination by the defence counsel, Secka Gaye, who asked him whether he had ever attended any meetings at Banjulinding, Mbye replied that he had never attended any meetings in Banjulinding, and that he had never been aware the 1st accused person was writing a letter to the Office of the President.
Further asked whether he ever conspired with Rongo to write a letter to the Office of the President, Mbye told the court that he had never conspired to write a letter to the Office of the President.
“In fact, before you write a letter, one must have a good background of education, which I did not have the skill to write,” he added.
However, the trial magistrate told him that somebody might write it for him.
Mbye told the court that nobody wrote a letter for him.
The case at that juncture was adjourned to 16 July 2012, for continuation of hearing.
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