The case is before Principal Magistrate Isatou Sallah Mbaye of the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court, where the witness, Amadou Nyang, testified that the accused told the police in a previous statement that she transferred all the money and transaction receipts to the owner of the business. However she later told the Special Investigation Unit that she did not transfer all the money via bank.
He further said the accused disclosed to the SIU that she sent and gave some money to one Muhammed Jagne to send it through a local transfer agent but a receipt of the transaction was not provided.
It would be recalled that the accused was charged with theft of one million five hundred and sixty-seven thousand five hundred dalasis (D1,567,500) through a business transaction.
PW1 further narrated that, the SIU were not convinced by the accused statement and thus, requested a bank statement of the accused.
‘‘A bank statement was requested to investigate whether the transactions were done by the accused but the SIU concluded that the evidence they received from the accused was different from what they got from the bank,’’ the witness said, adding that he had never seen the bank statement.
However, defence counsel Lamin L. Dibba, who held brief for counsel A.J. Njie, argued that the witness was to give facts rather than speak as an expert.
The prosecutor also maintained that the witness was leading to the facts and not siding as an expert, if only he was given a chance to talk without interruption.
Meanwhile, the defence counsel, Dibba, filed two applications: one is a request for the charge sheet hence he was holding a brief for counsel AJ Njie who was out of the court’s jurisdiction, and two for the court to review the bail conditions since there was a development that the accused was unhealthy.
Principal Magistrate Sallah Mbaye granted the first application by the defence counsel for a fair hearing and that the defence would be responsible for the cost, and his second request was read to him and asked to file formally.
The matter was adjourned until 31 January 2024.
