Lena Gomez,
who dragged the former alkalo of Manjai Kunda, Modou Lamin Camara, to the Kanifing
Magistrates’ Court for demolishing her house and killing her pigs, and also
selling her land, on 31 October 2013 closed her case before Magistrate Jobarteh
after calling her second and last witness to testify on her behalf.
The case was adjourned till 28 November 2013, when the former alkalo, Modou Lamin Camara, will tell the court his side of the story.
It could be recalled that, in her testimony, the plaintiff, Lena Gomez, on 30 May 2013, told the court she lives at Kotu and knows the defendant.
She posited that the defendant’s father sold a plot of land to her, adding that the former alkalo, Modou Lamin Camara, then later sold the said land to a Sarahuleh man who demolished her house and all that she had built on the land.
Mrs Gomez told the court that her child got sick at some point and she took the child to Guinea Bissau for treatment.
She further narrated that when she returned, she found out that the defendant had sold her land without her consent, adding that she reported the matter to the present alkalo who informed the defendant that the plot of land belonged to her.
Mrs Gomez testified that the Sarahuleh man who bought the land was taken to KMC where he disclosed that the land was sold to him by the defendant’s father, Karafa Camara.
Gomez told the court that the Sarahuleh man was advised to return the land to her, adding that she took the Sarahuleh man to the office of the Ombudsman but he failed to appear.
When the defendant appeared, she stated further, he was asked what he knew about the land and he said the land was given to her by his father, who issued her with some documents.
The said documents were shown to the defendant who objected to the tendering of the documents, saying the documents did not bear his father‘s stamp.
The documents were admitted by the court.
Mrs Gomez finally testified that she brought the defendant to court to know whether the defendant or his father sold the said land to the Sarahuleh man, adding that the defendant is in possession of the land.
Under cross-examination, the defendant put it to her that his father did not sell the land to her but she maintained that the defendant’s father did sell the land to her.
The defendant again put it to her that the stamp on the documents was not his father’s but the present alkalo’s.
Mrs Gomez told the court that the defendant knew whose stamp was on the documents.
On 22 August 2013, Lena Gomez called her first witness to testify on her behalf.
The witness, John Gomez, told the court he lives at Kotu and he is a building contractor, adding that he was working in the plaintiff’s compound in 1976, 1977 and 1978 and that she planted some mango trees and dug a well.
The defendant, Modou Lamin Camara, put it to the witness that he did not know anything about the case but the witness maintained that Mrs Gomez made some development in the compound.
Clara Mendy, who testified at the court on 31 October 2013 on behalf of her grandmother Lena Gomez, said she is a housewife who lives at Kotu.
She said she knew the plaintiff and used to see the defendant.
She narrated that her father knew something about the land, adding that her father once told her that the land is owned by the plaintiff.
“My father told me that whenever he died, I should say that the plaintiff owns the land,” the witness told the court.
When the defendant put it to her that she knew nothing about the case, Clara admitted knowing nothing about the case but said her father had long time ago informed her that the land is owned by the plaintiff.
