A
major crime officer, Lamin Cham, attached to the Major Crime Unit at police
headquarters in Banjul, recently testified in the trial involving one Omar
Gomez, accused of burglary and stealing before Magistrate J. Nahra of the
Kanifing Magistrates’ Court.
Constable 5347 Cham told the court that he recognised the accused, and could recall what happened some time in December 2015.
On 7 January 2016, a case file of burglary and stealing was received in his office from Manjai Police Station, together with five suspects including the accused as the principal suspect.
The case file was for further investigation in connection with a break-in that happened in the complainant’s compound, where a laptop marked Dell, multiple flash drives, 16G-bite external memory, vaccination cards, ID card, cash amount of D3,500, 17,000 CFA and other items were alleged to have been stolen from the complainant’s house in November 2015.
Investigation was mounted with regards to the information received; the suspects were confronted, and the accused accepted the allegation of breaking into the complainant’s house with one Zulu Mendy and Muhammed Jallow.
Officer Cham further told the court that the accused also told the investigators that the brain behind the operation was one Elizabeth Meriga, who was equally a suspect at the time.
The accused and the said Elizabeth were confronted on whether they had ever discussed the operation, he said, and Elizabeth claimed that she had never met the accused and the accused also claimed that he never met Elizabeth to discuss anything.
According to officer Cham, the investigation revealed that Elizabeth had nothing to do with the allegation.
He said the accused was further asked to help the investigation to know the whereabouts of Zulu and Muhammed Jallow, but it emerged that Zulu was in Casamance.
The police also conducted a search at the houses of the other three suspects, because the accused alleged that he sold some items to them, but nothing was recovered.
The investigation revealed that the three suspects were not part of the operation, and they were used as witnesses.
Hearing was adjourned until 1 March 2016.
