Justice Emmanuel Nkea of the Special Criminal Court yesterday issued a subpoena for the Director General of the Gambia Prison Department and the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency to appear before the court today.
This followed an application made by defence counsel B.S. Touray, for the court to issue a subpoena in respect of the case of former police chief Ensa Badjie and two former senior army officers, Lt. Col Mam Matarr Secka and Major Kuluteh Manneh.
Testifying under cross-examination, Major Kuluteh Manneh told the court that all what he had told the court in his evidence-in-chief was the truth.
He said the fabrication was on the side of the prosecution, because even by looking at the nature of the charge, he was charged with collecting money from members of the public, and those people were never called to give evidence in court.
Manneh added that from count one to nine, they used of the name of the President, and this was only to annoy the President against them.
Asked by the DDP why the prosecution would lie against him, the accused told the court that it was fabricated by the former DPP RN Chenge, which included all of them.
DW3 explained that the charges against him were fabricated because they were not supported by any evidence, denying ever conspiring with his co-accused persons, by telling members of the public that the President had given them drugs to sell.
He further said that he had never been closed to Sillaba Samateh, although he was arrested before him.
He said he never gave a statement until 15 April 2010, adding that Samateh never gave him money or cement, further stating that his statement was written when he was in a cell called Bambadinka.
Manneh revealed that he signed the voluntary statement on 13 March 2010, adding that he signed exhibit P5 on 10 March 2010, but there was no evidence to support that claim.
He said the prison diary could confirm that he was booked out of the prison on that night and taken to the NIA, which led to his torture, and that the content of exhibit P5 was not his.
He added that he had no problems with the members of the panel at the NIA.
The case continues today.
