Defence
opened recently in the theft case involving one Alhagie Njie, a resident of
Jabang village, in the West Coast Region, who was standing trial for the
offence of stealing at the Bundung Magistrates’ Court before Magistrate Ibrahim
Kijera.
In his defence, the accused, Alhagie Njie, told the court that on 13 March 2013, when he reported to work, he found a boy standing who called his attention at the petrol station and begged him money saying he was hungry.
“I gave him the money and the boy told me that I should know his house because I did a good thing for him,” he said.
Designated as defence witness one (DW1), the accused added that the boy took him to his house as the boy was not far from that place where he met the boy’s uncle.
“The boy introduced me to his uncle, one Babucarr Seye, and his uncle asked me about my names and I also asked him his names. When I entered the house of the boy, I found his uncle reciting the Qur’an,” he explained.
His uncle offered him a special prayer, which he said he had never offered to anybody, and made a concoction, and he promised him good health, long life, and wealth, he narrated.
“I then left and the following day, when I was sitting in my office, the boy came again with the concoction, and I did not have any two minds about it,” he said.
“When I called his uncle, he told me that he had offered a special prayer for me so that I can have progress at my workplace. He advised me to apply it on my body and bathe with it,” the accused said in his defence.
At this juncture, the trial magistrate asked the accused to go to the root of the case, as what he was saying had no nexus to the case.
He continued to say the boy’s uncle called him on his phone and asked him whether he would report to work, and he answered in the positive.
The accused said the boy’s uncle asked him whether he applied it before going to work, but before commencing the work, he passed by the house of the uncle who did a marabout work for him.
He told him three things which were all true, and instructed him to give out charity to identified people, and added that since he came to The Gambia, he had been seeing those types of people in Lamin village.
“I told him since you are my well-wisher, I would give you money and you would give out the charity for me,” he stated.
The case continues.
