The witness Modou Badjie, who is a police officer, said that when they got to the compound of the deceased, Shakina Chinedu, behind the garage inside her compound, they saw marks of dragging and they followed those marks up to the septic tank. He said he used a ladder to go down the septic tank and tried to remove some sand within it. In the process, he added, he saw the leg of the deceased inside the tank.
After discovering the body, he narrated, he called the Fire Service, the medical health and the Crime Record Coordinator to the scene to collect the body.
He explained that the deceased was wearing tights and sports shoes and there was ‘rastas’ (dreadlocks) on her head, adding that the deceased sustained a wound on her forehead and she bit her tongue. The deceased was later taken to the mortuary, he said.
Asked if there were any other visible marks on the ground besides the dragging marks, the witness said some sand removed within the septic tank was used to bury the deceased, adding that when they initially saw the marks on the sand, they concluded that something was buried inside it.
He further narrated that the deceased was recognised by a complainant and one Omar Colley who reported the case at the Tujereng police station on 16 February 2024. On that day, he testified, when the complainants came to the station and requested for the police to go back and make more searches for the deceased, he said to them: “I told them that the station van was out and we have to wait.”
The witness added that the complainants left on their own to the property of the deceased and about 20 minutes later, they came back to the station again claiming that they saw a septic tank inside the compound and they believed that something was buried inside that septic tank.
The witness said he then joined the vehicle and got to the property of deceased and he instructed one of the complainants, Omar, to use a ladder to climb over the main gate. He said he passed a hammer over to Omar to break all 3 padlocks to the gate in order to have access to the property.
It would be recalled that the deceased Sakina Chinedu, a 60-year-old Briton, was residing in The Gambia since 2017 and was allegedly killed by one Augustine Bangura on 14 February 2024 at Sinchang Village.
The accused was charged with two counts of murder and theft contrary to section 187 and 252 of the Criminal Code of the Gambia.
He was alleged to have hit the deceased with a hammer at the back of her neck, which resulted in her death, and he stole D80,000, two laptops, a tablet, flash drives, keys, a canon camera, and bank and correspondence cards from the bag and apartment of the deceased.
When the matter was reported by the friend of the deceased at the police station, the police and the complainants went to the deceased’s compound.
The police testified that he made a primary search of the deceased’s compound but could not find anything at the time.
He then said he asked the complainants to go home and come back the following day, which was on 16 February 2024.
The case was adjourned until 21 May 2024.
