Continuing her testimony, she asserted that when she was asked to apply some charm on her face and hands in the bush, she was told to return the following day to go through the same process, which she did. “I was asked whether I got some money and I told them that I had some at home. I went back home and the following day I took D295,000 to the bush and handed it to an old man who was sitting on a mat. I hired a taxi to drive me to the bush at Jarra Buiba and I paid D4,000 to the driver. It was Biram Bah who was making some noise, pretending to be a devil. I was hypnotized. I was really out of my senses. They told me to buy two suitcases and leave one with them and the other one should be kept in my house. They also told me that the one I should leave in my house would be filled with money. But when I opened the one in my house there was no money in it,” she told the court.
She further narrated that while she was at home, one of the men from Buiba called her and requested D500,000 from her. “I then gave my son D59,000 to send to the men through wave but he informed my husband who asked him not to send the D59,000 through wave but to send only D150. My son did what my husband advised him to do. When the charm was no more on me, my husband advised me to go with him to the police station to report the matter. We did so,” she stated.
At this juncture, the prosecuting officer, Sub-Inspector Kebbeh, applied to tender four wave receipts and one of the suitcases bought by the complainant. They were admitted into evidence by the court.
When Biram Bah was asked whether he had some questions for the witness, he responded in the positive. He asked the witness where she knew him. She replied that she knew him through a telephone call. Dawda Jallow was also asked whether he had a question for the witness, but he said he knew nothing about the case, and that he had no question for the witness.
It could be recalled that Biram Bah and Dawda Jallow were earlier arraigned before Magistrate Touray for allegedly duping the complainant, Binta Touray, of her money.
She told the court that sometime in November, 2023, she was waiting for her husband in his shop while he was out. She revealed that she received a call from someone to either call his father for him or send him some credit. She further stated that she told him that she would not call his father for him but would send him some credit. She said that he was using an Africell line. She went on to say that she sent him D20 credit. When she was asked by Prosecutor Kebbeh why she sent the person some credit when she does not know him, she responded that she did it on humanitarian basis.
“I sent him D20 credit and he told me that I am a kind woman. He again asked me to send him D650 which I did through wave. The following day he asked me to send him D10,000. I did so through the same process. He also asked me to send him D5,000 and I did so. He again asked me to send him D1,200 to buy incense. I did so. I also sent him D1000 credit. He then told me that I should visit him at his home at Jarra Buiba to pray for me,” she told the court.
Binta Touray further testified that she went to Jarra Buiba to visit the man. She adduced that she was all the time speaking to Biram Bah. “When I arrived at Jarra Buiba, I informed him on the phone that I did not know the place. He told me to wait for him to pick me. But it was Dawda Jallow who came and picked me on a motorbike and took me to the bush. I found Biram Bah and other men in the bush, sitting on a mat with their prayer beads. They then applied some charm on my face and hands, and whatever they asked me to do, I would do,” she narrated.
The case was adjourned to the 22nd January, 2024, for Prosecutor Kebbeh to call his second witness.
