Momodou Lamin Camara, former Manjai Kunda Alkalo, who was sued at the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court by Lena Gomez for selling her land, demolishing her house and killing her pigs, on 28 November 2013, testified in his defence before Magistrate Jobarteh.
The defendant, Momodou Lamin Camara, told the court he lives at Manjai Kunda and he is a farmer, adding that he knows the plaintiff.
He adduced that the plaintiff, Lena Gomez, had claimed she had a compound at Manjai Kunda “but this is not true”.
Camara told the court the said land is his farm land, adding that his father was the alkalo of Manjai Kunda and started farming on the said land when his father died.
He posited that his father was the owner of the land, adding that after he had finished farming on the land, he gave it to one Saihou Sumareh.
He further posited that Saihou Sumareh bought the land from him and fenced it, adding that it is now 30 years since it has been fenced.
Since then, Camara noted, nobody had claimed ownership of the land, and since he was an alkalo in 1982, nobody claimed ownership of the land except the plaintiff.
Camara also revealed that the stamp the plaintiff showed the court to be his father’s stamp was not his father’s.
At this juncture, he tendered a document he said was bearing his father’s stamp.
The plaintiff did not object to the tendering of the document, and it was admitted by the court.
Magistrate Jobarteh then told the court that the weight to be attached to the document shall be determined later.
Camara further testified that any compound given out by his father bears the said stamp, adding that the plaintiff “does not own the land” and his father did not sell the land to her.
He denied that he demolished the plaintiff’s house, saying that there was no building on the land.
When the plaintiff, Lena Gomez, was asked whether she had questions to ask the defendant under cross-examination, she told the court that since she had made her claim before the court, she left everything with the court.
The case was adjourned till 19 December 2013, for the defendant to call his witness.
It would be recalled that the plaintiff, Lena Gomez, had already tendered documents bearing payments of rates and a certificate of ownership, all issued to her by the KMC.
