Defence testimony continued on Monday at the Brikama Magistrates’ Court in the case involving 86 people from Gidda and Giboro.
The 86 accused persons are standing trial on charges of disobedience to lawful order, conspiracy to commit felony, threatening violence and going in arms in public.
In his defence testimony, Nuha Badjie stated that he could remember on 31 January 2010 when the people of Gidda went to their women’s garden for clearing.
They went with their cutlasses, spade and axes, he said, adding that they were clearing the women’s garden and the people of Giboro kuta were also in their area.
The witness further stated that while they were in the garden clearing, the police came to arrest them but he did not know the reason they were being arrested because there was no fight, neither there was any dispute between the two villages.
He said he had never heard it and nobody told him about any order warning them from going to that particular area.
Under cross-examination, he told the court he is the younger brother of the Alkalo of Gidda, adding that his father was the founder of Gidda.
He was not aware of any meeting that was called by the District Chief of the area concerning any land in dispute, he said.
When told that the governor of West Coast Region had summoned the two villages’ alkalolu and elders in his office concerning the land in dispute, the witness, in his response, told the court that it could be but he was not aware of any meeting.
The case continues on 30 April 2012.
