The police witness Modou Badjie attached to the Serious Crime Unit at Tujereng Police Station said that while he was on the search of the properties of the deceased, Sakina Chinedu, he was communicating with her daughter who was in the United Kingdom (UK).
He stated that the daughter told him to look into the car of the deceased, and if the car tape was inside the vehicle then her mother was probably not alive. The daughter, he testified, told him her mother would always remove her car tape to finally get inside her house.
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 deceased bag and apartment.
According to the police witness, the friend of the deceased came to report at the station that her friend was missing and they were trying to call the deceased’s phones but were off.
He added that the matter was booked in the station diary and he further asked the complainants whether they were suspicious of where the deceased could or used to be most of the time. He said the complaints told him that the deceased had an office in Brufut and a compound at a village called Madina Alai Gaye.
“I left the Charge Office to the said property,” the witness said, adding that upon their arrival at the compound of the deceased, all the compound gates were locked.
That moment, the witness said, he went to the neighborhood and borrowed a ladder because the deceased’s compound fence was 3-meter long and there were wire gauze on it, adding that he then jumped into the compound of the deceased and found the private vehicle of the deceased parked beside the garage and all the doors of the vehicle were locked.
The witness further explained that he made a primary search of the compound but could not find anything at the time. He said he then asked the complainants to go home and come back the following day, which was on 16 February 2024.
He stated that the compound of the deceased had two gates; a big and small one, adding that the big gate was locked inside with three padlocks and the small one was locked with a key.
The case was adjourned till 13 May 2024.
