Motor mechanic testifies in Bun and co trial

The criminal trial involving Ibrahim Bun Sanneh and four others yesterday continued at the Banjul High Court before Justice Emmanuel Amadi.

Testifying, the eleventh prosecution witness, Alieu Sanneh, told the court he is a motor mechanic and knew all the accused persons except the fourth accused person.

“In April 2009, the 1st and 5th accused gave me a truck in order to find goods and load and take them to Basse,” the witness revealed.

“I then took the truck to the Basse car park in Banjul and gave it to the chief car attendance to load it, and it was loaded the following day with the assistant of one Boy Narr,” PW11 told the court.

Sanneh further disclosed that they went back to the 1st and 5th accused and show them the manifesto in respect of the items loaded in the truck.

He added that when he showed the manifesto to the 1st accused, Bun Sanneh said the truck should not go, because he the witness had loaded the truck very early and therefore Bun instructed them to offload it.

PW11 further explained that the 1st accused took him to the accountant, the 5th accused, in order to pay the labourer to offload the truck, but the 5th accused told them to wait and talk to the boss.

“They could not get the money, but instead had the clearance for the police checkpoint and it was given to him by the 5th accused,” he added.

“As they could not get the money to pay the labourers, the 5th accused gave them the document to take the truck to Basse,” the witness further explained.

He also told the court that it was Boy Narr who provided the fuel money to the tune of D21,000, adding that the total amount of D42,000 was the transport cost for the goods to be transported to Basse.

He further adduced that upon arriving at Basse they delivered the goods to their owners, Pateh Sowe and Fatou Sowe, who also gave them the balance which they delivered to the 5th accused person.

The witness revealed that the said truck “is the property” of the drug squad.

He identified the said manifesto because it bears the logo of the Gambia Transport Union. The manifesto was later admitted in court as exhibit without any objection by the defence, following the prosecution’s application to tender the same.

He stated further that the truck loaded 700 bags of sugar to Basse and the driver of the truck was one Ansumana Jadama, and he (the witness) was there as a mechanic to oversee the condition of the truck.

Under cross-examination by the defence counsel, Kebba Sanyang, the witness told the court that the 1st accused was not aware that they had gone to Basse.

The case at that juncture was adjourned till today.