Woman marabout’s trial progresses

She asserted that one day she was chatting with her cousins. “One of my cousin sisters told us that the accused lives behind the compound we live.  We met the accused and she told us that she has a family of devils and the eldest of them is called Alagie Musa Hydara. She further told us that whatever Alagie Musa Hydara asks us to give him we should do so because he will give us a lot of money in return.  The accused used to chat with my uncle’s daughter at my uncle’s home. We would sometimes go there and chat with her. She would also come to our home to chat with us. There was a time when she came and lived at our home. She would ask me to give her some money from the sales I had, and I once gave her D24,000 from the sales.  She would always ask me to give her whatever sales I had for the day, and I did so. She would use a chewing stick wrapped in a red piece of cloth. She would ask me to lend her some money and sometimes she would pick some food stuffs from one of our shops. She would take some goods from our container and would not pay. She one day asked us to take out some charity and she gave us some charm to wash with,” she told the court.

The witness was asked why she was giving out money and goods to the accused by the prosecutor. She responded that she trusted her and that she told them about her eldest Jinn whom the accused said would give them a lot of money.    

In summary, the witness testified that her elder sister who lives in the US would also send money to the accused through money transfer. “The accused would show this money to people in the town and would tell them that it was Jinn who gave her the money,” the witness asserted.

The accused is facing one count of pretending to exercise witchcraft or tell fortunes contrary to Section 294 of Criminal Code, three counts of obtaining goods by false pretence and two counts of obtaining money by false pretence.

The case was adjourned to the 9th September, 2024, for the witness to continue her testimony.