Woman tells court how she was defrauded

The duo, Musa Jawo and Alhagi Jawo (at large), were charged with the offence of obtaining money by false pretence from Adiatou Konteh, with the promise to make her rich.

Testifying as a prosecution witness, Adiatou Konteh told the court that she is a sales executive at the Three Double Design company, and that she knew the accused person.

She recalled what happened between September and October 2012, when she received a call from the accused person (at large), who identified himself as one Muhammed.

The witness said she asked him how he got to know her name and telephone number, and the accused told her that he got it when he was doing “Istikhar”.

“He started telling me to take out charity, and it was regarding my work,” she told the court.

She adduced that, later, the accused person (at large) persistently called her until she picked up the call.

She narrated that the accused told her that he was staying in Bakoteh, and that she should come there.

“Upon arrival, he instructed me to take out charity of a sheep, but I told him I cannot buy it because it was too expensive,” she narrated.

He further told her to take out charity of seven apples, bananas, candles, white cola-nut, a piece of white cloth, 3 kilos of meat and an empty bag of rice.

She added that the accused told her that her luck was a star inside the sea, and the charity should be taken out at the sea-side.

According to her, the accused told her that he would go with her to the beach.

“We went to the beach around Coco-Ocean at around 4 pm and the accused told me I was going to see an elderly man, and I should not be scared,” she told the court.

“When we approached the beach side at a bushy area, he asked me to put down the charity,” said the witness.

She added that the accused told her that they were going to walk for a distance, and if the charity was not found, it means it was accepted.

She testified further that during the walk, the accused told her to recite fatiha from the Holy Quran and, upon returning, the charity was not found.

“I was surprised and scared, because I did not see anybody picking up the charity,” she added.

She adduced that at the place, the accused asked her to recite three verses of fatiha from the Quran and further instructed her to say ‘assalamu alaikum’ three times.

Testifying further, she noted that as soon as she said that, she heard a strange voice from the bush speaking in one of the local languages (Wollof), calling her name three times.

The voice indicated her name and telephone number was given to the accused by him.

“The voice revealed that all my problems were over, and that my luck was opened,” she continued.

She told the court that the empty bag of rice she took out for the charity, all of a sudden, came out full of money covered with a white piece of clothes.

The case continues on 4 December 2012.

The alleged offence stated that between September and October 2012, at Serrekunda and diverse places, the accused persons obtained from one Adiatou Konteh D216, 680 with the pretext that they were going to double the money into millions of dalasis, and make her rich.