The duo is charged with obstruction and assault before Justice Isatou Janneh-Njie of the High Court at Kanifing.
Narrating what she knows about the case, Sainabou Macauley told the court that she is also known as Yassin Macauley and she lives at Dippa Kunda. She said she is a cook at Sepron Restaurant at Senegambia.
She testified further that on the 6th October, 2020, she was in their sitting room watching television at Kololi. “We were living at Kololi and later transferred to Dippa Kunda. I was living at Kololi during the time of the incident which happened around 8 p.m. after we had dinner,” she revealed.
She posited that while they were sitting in the sitting room watching TV, they heard an old woman, Ya Sai Joof, shouting that Tijan Macauley was fighting. She stated that they rushed outside, and upon their arrival at the scene, they found many people. She asserted that it was her cousin, Sainey Jarju, Yusupha Jaiteh, Yakumba Jaiteh, Ya Sai Joof and she who went to the scene.
“When we got outside, we saw about three or four men push Tijan against the wall. Then Yakumba asked the men what happened and identified herself as Honourable Yakumba Jaiteh. We saw the men dragging Tijan into their pick-up while Tijan was telling them that they were hurting him. The men did not respond when they were asked the reason of dragging Tijan,” the witness told the court.
She further revealed that they did not know whether the men were police officers and that they panicked and did not know what was happening. “The men did not show us any document to indicate that they were police officers. The men held Jijan’s shirt and some people held his pair of trousers while Tijan was shouting that they were hurting him. Nobody stopped the men from dragging Tijan,” she posited.
She went on to say that when they asked the men why they were dragging Tijan, they did not respond. She denied that one of them held the throat of one of the men. “The men did not carry anything that showed that they were law enforcement officers. They did not listen to Yakumba Jaiteh when she identified herself as a member of the National Assembly but continued dragging Tijan. Someone then asked Yakumba to call the police because the men were dragging Tijan and we did not know where they were taking him,” she narrated.
As Yakumba took her mobile phone, she stated, her hands were shaking and her phone fell down. She asserted that they both bent down to pick the phone. “As I got up, I realized that the pepper spray had entered in my eyes. I then shouted that the men did something to me and I could not breathe. And as I was entering the compound, I fell down,” the witness told the court.
She said that when she fell down some boys came and assisted her and Sainey Jarju, and that she could not breathe. “I collapsed and I was taken to the hospital. The crowd had already dispersed when I came back and I found my younger sisters and brothers when I came with Sainey Jarju. Yakumba Jaiteh, Yusupha Jaiteh and Ya Sai Joof were not in the house. They went to the police because Tijan was taken to the police station,” she revealed.
She testified that she could not recall when Yakumba and Yusupha Jaiteh returned home but they were at home the following day. She stated that she was not aware whether Yakumba and Yusupha returned home from the police.
Under cross-examination by ASP Badjie in an attempt to discredit, challenge and contradict her, she posited that Tijan is her cousin and that his mother brought her up. “Yakumba is my cousin and Yusupha Jaiteh is my father and he is the husband of my namesake,” she told the court.
She confirmed that when the incident happened, she was in their sitting room and heard her namesake say that Tijan was fighting but did not know with whom he was fighting. “Nobody could help Tijan because he was being surrounded by the three men. I would have helped him if I had the power to do so,” she testified.
The witness will continue her testimony under cross-examination on the 24th May, 2023.
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