#Article (Archive)

More testify in Briton’s murder case

Jun 15, 2012, 1:21 PM | Article By: Malamin Conteh

The state prosecutor had paraded more witnesses in the murder trial involving three Nigerian nationals, Micheal Funaya, Stanley and Collins, who allegedly murdered one Ian Stokes, a British national residing in the Gambia, at Bakoteh Junction Bar, on 13th May 2012.

The seventh prosecution witness, (PW7) Chief Inspector Bekai Bojang, a police officer attached to the criminal records office as a fingerprinting officer at police headquarters in Banjul.

Bojang told the court that he compared the fingerprints of the suspects, and appear the same as the ones obtained from the vehicle doors of the deceased person.

He said he wrote a report, and the prosecutor at that juncture applied to tender the report, which was admitted and marked as an exhibit.

Under cross-examination, the witness stated that he is not a fingerprint expert, but was trained by an expert and he was not certified, adding that his boss was satisfied with his job.

 He said he had never visited the scene of the crime.

Kebba Darboe, a police officer attached to Barra Police Station as a detective officer, told the court that he knew the 1st accused, Micheal Funaya.

He said while acting on the information given to him by his boss on 14 May 2012, he erected a checkpoint at Essau, because there was a man called MIcheal who was wanted.

Inspector Darboe said upon the arrival of the vehicle in which the accused was on board, they stopped the vehicle and asked the passengers to produce their ID, and when Micheal showed them his ID, they asked him to alight from the vehicle.

Designated as the eighth prosecution, Officer Darboe said that when Micheal alighted from the vehicle he started to run away, but was apprehended and taken to Barra and later to the major crime unit.

Commissioner Alieu Njie, attached to police headquarters’ scientific support unit, as the head, told the court that on 13 May 2012, while he was at work, Sergeant Colley and deputy commissioner Landing Bojang, head of operations in Kanifing Division, invited him to a murder case at Bakoteh Junction Bar.

Upon arrival at the scene of the crime, he found a crowd and a vehicle stuck in the sand, adding that he saw a white man in the front passenger seat in a pool of blood.

Commissioner Njie said he then conducted a discovered finger print, saw an empty bottle of Coke, Africell SIM card, ladies shoes, and a life jacket with blood stains, close to the driver’s seat.

He added that he told Sergeant Colley to take photos of the entire scene, and he dated the finger prints at the back.

Based on the information that some people were arrested, he went on, “I instructed Colley to go and take their fingerprints, and I asked Bekai to match them, and they matched the fingerprints of the suspects.

The case continues on 18 June 2012, for defence.