‘Yankuba Touray did not kill Koro Ceesay’

Ensa Mendy, the second prosecution witness in the murder case involving Yankuba Touray, on the 18 November, 2019, told the High Court in Banjul before Justice Ebrima Jaiteh that Yankuba Touray did not kill Koro Ceesay. He was answering questions under cross-examination by Defence Counsel Abdoulie Sissoho.

When the case was called, Counsel Sissoho told the court that the state should produce the statements of the witness dated 2nd July, 2019, and 5th July, 2019. The witness at this juncture confirmed that he made the said statements. Counsel Sissoho then applied to tender the statements. The state counsel did not object to the tendering of the statements. They were subsequently admitted by the court.

Counsel Sissoho requested the statements which were made available to him. He then took permission for the statements to be given to the witness, which was done. He told the witness to confirm the face of the statements and put it to him that he was posted to Yankuba’s residence as an orderly and not as a bodyguard.

In response, he told the court that he was posted briefly as an orderly and was also told that he was the personal bodyguard of the accused. At this juncture, he was referred to the statement dated 2nd July, 2019, where it was stated that he was instructed to be an orderly to the accused. He answered in the positive.

He was asked what date in July he went on patrol in 1995, and he said that he could not remember the date. Asked what day was it in July, he replied that he did not know. “You said in your evidence that you were instructed by the accused to leave State House between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. to go to his house,” Counsel Sissoho put it to him. He responded in the positive.

It was put to him that he stated in his statements that he was instructed by the accused to leave State House between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. He said he disagreed. He was asked to look at the statement dated 2nd July, 2019, at page two in the second sentence and told that he went to the house of the accused between 21 hours and 22 hours. He denied it.

He was quoted in the statement dated 5th July, 2019, at page three as saying: “At this time, Yankuba called me around 21 p.m. to 22 p.m. to go on patrol.”  He said it was correct.

“Between the two statements you are placed in two places, one at State House and the other one at the residence of the accused at Kololi,” Counsel Sissoho challenged him. He answered in the negative.

“As per the statement dated 2nd July, 2019, between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. the accused was still at State House when he instructed you to go home,” Counsel Sissoho put it to him. He denied it.

He was asked whether it was not true that in the statement dated 2nd July, 2019, he stated that between 9 p.m.  and 10 p.m. when he got to the residence of the accused, his immediate family members were inside his residence. He confirmed that he was with them there around 9 p.m.

“Can you name the family members of the accused at his residence at the time?” asked Counsel Sissoho. He replied that the wife of the accused, Mamie Minteh, and her younger sister, Aji Minteh, and the son of the accused, Edward Touray, the younger one he left there and the maid, as well as the guards and one Fatoumata.

It was put to him that he named six people who were at the residence of the accused and was asked whether he was sure that what he told the court was true. He responded in the positive. It was also put to him that in June 1995 the accused had only one child, and he answered in the positive.

He was referred to the statement dated 2nd July, 2019, at page two in the last sentence as saying: “As a service man, I stood and observed. The place was very lonely. No maid. No wife neither the children. I left there.” He was asked whether he could confirm this, and he said that he wrote it. He further told the court that this was when he returned from patrol. He added that he did not see anybody except the accused.

“In the statement dated 2nd July, 2019, you have confirmed that the accused in June, 1995, had children,” it was put to him. He replied that he left the service when he was writing the statement.

“Did you see the deceased at the residence of the accused?”

“No.”

“Did you see the accused and the deceased talking?”

“No.”

Hearing continues today.