By Rohey Jadama
Police Superintendent Fullo Mbye, the officer commanding (OC)
Serrekunda division, yesterday, 24 March, testified as the second prosecution witness (PW2) in the ongoing trial of Mustapha Njie, the taxi driver of the vehicle in which one Ya Binta Jarju was shot dead by security personnel in Manjai/Erinjang.Faced with four count charges, Mr. Njie has already pleaded guilty to
counts one and four i.e. ‘Failure to stop when required’ and
‘Unlicensed Driving’ and was fined Four Thousand Dalasi (D4000) and
One Thousand Dalasi (D1000), respectively. He is now facing trial on
counts two and three namely ‘Disobedience to lawful order’ and ‘Rash
and Negligent Act Causing Death’ and to which he pleaded not guilty.
The accused is represented by Lawyer Edward Gomez and the IGP by
Sergeant Colley.
Appearing before Magistrate Patrick Gomez of the Kanifing
Magistrates’ Court, Superintendent Mbye said he lives in Kotu and
works at Serrekunda police station. He adduced that as a commanding
officer his duties are the day to day supervision of all cases that
occur in his area of responsibility.
PW2 told the court that on the 7th March, between the hours of 8pm and
11pm, he was at Kotu police station where he received information from
one Corporal 3957 Sainey Bajinka of the Manjai police station regarding
a shooting incident at the Manjai-Erinjang area and involving one lady
(Ya Binta Jarju) who died on the spot on board a commercial vehicle. He
said upon his arrival at the Manjai police station, he found the
defendant (Mustapha Njie), who is said to be the owner of the vehicle,
and also PW1 (Sulayman Bah), who is said to be the friend of the late
Ms. Jarju.
“I then proceeded to the scene with some police officers and upon my
arrival at the scene, I found the dead body of a lady on board the
said vehicle,” said PW2.
He told the Court that he then asked the police to invite a
photographer to the scene and that the scene was photographed together
with the dead body.
The superintendent told the Court that both the corpse of late Ya
Binta and the taxi vehicle were later removed from the scene. The
former was taken to Banjul and the latter to the Manjai police station.
He added that he also escorted the accused, PW1 and the vehicle to the
Kairaba police station.
”The case was handed over to the CID for an investigation, end of
statement,” said PW2, which evoked laughter in the courtroom.
Under Cross examination by the defence counsel, PW2 was asked whether
he went to the scene to get first-hand information when he was
informed about it. The witness responded in the positive.
“Now officer Mbye, on your arrival at the scene, did you find the dead
body of a lady?” asked Lawyer Gomez.
PW2 responded in the positive.
Gomez asked, “Is it correct that there was plenty of blood?”
He responded, “Yes”.
When asked whether he had tried to find out what happened to the
victim when he arrived at the spot, PW2 responded “What I was informed
was a shooting incident.”
He was further asked whether through his observation the victim was alive.
“At that time she was not alive,” said PW2.
“Officer Mbye did you notice the windscreen of the vehicle?” asked the
defence counsel.
The witness responded in the positive.
“What did you notice?” asked Counsel Gomez.
“The windscreen was broken,” he responded.
At this juncture, the trial magistrate adjourned the case to 26th
March at 11:30am for the testimony of the third prosecution witness
(PW3).]]>
