By Rohey Jadama
Ms. Suwaidou Jallow a business woman testified as second prosecution
witness (PW2) in the trial involving Pa Malick Ceesay, the erstwhile
National AssemblyMember for Lower Saloum Constituency and former
Coordinator of National Enterprise Development Initiative (NEDI), andIsmaila Njie, the former Accountant of NEDI yesterday 6 July.
The state was represented by the Director of Public Prosecutions and
the accused persons were represented by Counsel Edward A. Gomez.
PW2 told the court that she is a business woman living in Bundung
and that she recognises Pa Malick but does not know Ismaila Njie.
Ms. Jallow said some time in 2009, Pa Malick was introduced to her by
her sister and that she was doing a tailoring business with the
former. She said they discussed about the business and she left for
Dakar.
PW2 said when she went to Dakar she bought some materials from her own
money. She adduced that the accused (Pa Malick) gave her a cheque for
D50,000 and asked her to go to the Bank and cash it. She said when she
cashed it she gave the money back to the 1st Accused and that the
latter gave her D30,000 and the remaining D20,000 was paid to one Pa
Alagie for the rent of the shop.
PW1 said one man came to him and asked him to fill a form and that she
told the man that she cannot fill the form. She said thereafter she
went to the house of the accused and the wife of the accused told her
that the accused went on a tour.
“The following day one man called me and said he was calling from the
fraud squad office of the police headquarters and he told me I was
needed at their office the following day”, said the witness.
She said when she got to the fraud squad she was asked whether she
took a loan from the accused and that she responded in the negative.
The witness added that the business was between her and the accused,
and that if anything happened she would call the accused and inform
him about it. She also told the court that the accused informed her
that they want to do business in a form of a loan and that she asked
the accused how much but that the accused told him that they don’t
know yet.
At this juncture the DPP applied to tender the rent receipt, there was
no objection from the defence counsel and it was marked as Exhibit B.
“The investigators told me to go to the NEDI office and pay the sum of
One-hundred and Sixty-one thousand Dalasis”, said PW2. She told the
court that she doesn’t know the value of the four sewing machines. And
she cannot remember how much she gave to the accused because no
receipt was provided.
Under cross-examination the witness was asked by counsel Gomez in
whose name the cheque was written. The witness said she just took the
cheque and cashed it but that she did not know in whose name it was written.
PW2 while responding to questions said that she does not know the
value of the sewing machines but that the D30,000 was given to her to
buy materials and accessories and the remaining D20,000 was spent on
the rent of the shop to which she added 1,000 to making it D21,000.
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