Dodou Janneh alias 'Dou Boy' a prisoner serving a death sentence at Mile 2 Prison was the latest, among a number of convicts, to testify in the trial of ex-IGP Ensa Badjie and Chief Superintendent of Prison Ali Ceesay
Testifying before Justice Ikpala at the Special Criminal Court of the high court in Banjul, the prosecution's 9th witness, Dodou Janneh, told the court that he lived at Cape Point, and presently he is in prison.
"I know one Tony (PW8) who I worked for at City Pub Bar and Resturant as a manager," PW9 testified.
"I also know one Soriba Condeh (PW1). I was introduced to Soriba Condeh by the 1st accused, Ensa Badjie.
"I know the 1st accused Ensa Badjie when I was a manager at City Pub Bar and Resturant and the 1st accused used to visit the (City Pub) bar," he added.
"I did not know who the 1st accused was at that time, I thereafter came to know that the 1st accused was the Officer Commanding Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Kanifing Division," he told the court.
He added that the 1st accused took him to Serrekunda police station to serve as a volunteer police officer. "I went there to start, because at that time there was armed robbery within the jurisdiction."
Dou Boy, as he is widely called, told the special criminal court that one day he went on a mission to City Pub where he saw a drunken man driving the red Benz 190 car of Ensa Badjie.
"The unknown man came and parked the car. Then I approached the man in order to have him arrested, because he was drunk while driving, which is against the law, but the man resisted arrest."
PW9 added that the man then took his phone and called Ensa Badjie. After a while, he continued, a friend of the 1st accused, Tony, came out of the Bar and told me, "don't you know this man is a friend of the 1st accused."
"I told Tony that even though he is a friend of the 1st accused, he should not drink and drive. Then I released the man, and he went away."
Asked by the Deputy DPP Mikailu Abdullahi where the 1st accused was at that time, the witness said he did not know that Ensa Badjie was at the time inside the bar, in a room.
Janneh further testified that he received a call from the 1st accused at around 16:00 GMT instructing him to report at his office the following day. When he arrived at the office the next day, he found the door locked.
"I made a phone call to the 1st accused to inform him that I was at his office, and over the phone he asked me whether I was with anybody, and I told him "No". The 1st accused, he added, then opened the door and I then entered the office. He asked me to re-lock the door.
"I found the 1st accused counting plenty of money in his office, and he asked me to help him count the said money, which I did," PW9 told the court.
The amount of money the 1st accused was counting amounted to D300, 000 raw cash, from a black plastic bag, Janneh told the court.
PW9 told the court that it was during that visit to Ensa Badjie's office that he learned from him that the man he attempted to arrest for drunk driving was Soriba Condeh (PW1). Ensa Badjie also told him he was at City Pub inside the bar in small room, at the time, and that the man is his friend.
The 9th prosecution witness further told the court that the 1st accused warned him not to disclose to anyone that he had found him counting money in his office.
In his testimony, PW9 also told the court that whenever "we were on night patrol" and "whenever I meet with PW1, he used to give me money and cigarettes."
He said he later learned from an informant that one Ramsis was in town, "and another informant also told me that all the rampant break-ins were done by Ramsis and others," he added.
Janneh told a packed court-room that he went to Serrekunda Police Station, where he informed Ensa Badjie that Ramsis was in town, and was the one carrying out all the break-ins.
Ensa Badjie's response, according to PW9, was that Ramises was not in town and if he was in town he (1st accused) would have know because Ramises has left the country for 15 years.
Told by Janneh that his informants said Ramsis was in town, the 1st accused insisted he was not.
PW9 went on to tell the court, whenever they are gathered to go out for night patrol to investigate about armed robbers, Ensa Badjie would always come to brief them, even though he was not part of the patrol team.
Janneh also said that whenever they come from patrolling, Ensa Badjie would call to ask whether they are back at their base. Then one day, he observed that whenever they returned to their base, armed robbers would hit in the place they went on patrol.
Janneh told the court that it was an informant who told him that the man who gave him money and cigarettes whenever they are on patrol is called Ramsis. "I asked the informant whether that Ramsis is Soriba Condeh, and he said, "Yes". Ramsis is his criminal name," Janneh told the court.
He said he later met Ensa Badjie at City Pub and told him about his discovery that "the Soriba Condeh you introduced to me is call Ramsis."
At that juncture, the witness said he was not feeling well, was feeling giddy and could not continue testifying.
The prosecutor M. Abdullihi then applied for an adjournment, and subsequently the case was adjourned for hearing to continue today, without any objection from the defence counsel, B.S. Touray.
The ex-police chief and former chief superintendent of prisons Ali Ceesay are facing several charges such as conspiracy to commit a felony, robbery with violence, receiving stolen property, aiding and abetting, robbery, conspiracy to commit misdemeanour, official corruption, conspiracy to defeat justice and interference with witnesses, deceiving witnesses, and offences relating to judicial proceedings.
