By Yankuba Jallow
Alieu Mbye, a young trader has narrated his ordeal in the hands of the police who arrested him and 15 others. The 29 year old told Foroyaa that he is a businessman involved in the sale of mobile gadgets such as covers and has been selling mainly at the Serrekunda Market junction since 2004.
He said on Tuesday 31st October 2017, he was stopped by a police intervention unit official who was armed and in possession of a gun. Thereafter, he explained that a CID officer who was not in uniform came to ask him what was in his bag.
“I replied to him that the materials I sell and my bank book,” he said.
He said his bag was sought by the CID who could not find something illegal but yet he (the CID officer) insisted that they should move together to the Serrekunda Police Station. He explained that at the premises of the Station, they were asked to board a standby vehicle that was stationed there on.
He averred that he and 15 others were carried to Kairaba Police Station in a pickup and lorry.
“The one who insisted that he will speak because he had done nothing wrong and that his business was affected, was hand-cuffed,” he said.
Upon arrival at the Kairaba Police Station, he said they were asked to sit on the ground underneath a mango tree in the Station’s premises whilst some police intervention unit officials were deployed to guard them.
He said thereafter, they were divided into two groups which were those with bags and those without bags. He added that their bags were searched exhaustively and also there was a second search conducted on them.
“In all these searches nothing was found in my possession that they can claim is someone’s,” he said.
He added that the police told him that his bank book carries an amount of money that is huge and that they need to know the source.
“In my bank book I have an amount of money slightly above D60,000.00 which I saved since the year 2004,” he said.
He said when the search was completed, he was transferred to Bakau Police Station and detained there; that the officers present told their SO that they were brought there by the SO of Kairaba Police Station.
“Six of us were locked up in a small cell whilst ten others were released upon negotiations between their family members and the police,” he said.
He said the condition in the police cell was so terrible that he fainted and was rushed to the Serrekunda General Hospital in Kanifing on the same night; that the doctors asked the police officers who conveyed him to the Hospital the reason for his detention but the officers responded that they don’t know; that he was bailed by his younger brother whilst he was admitted at the hospital.
He said when he was released, he and his family members went to Bakau Station from where he was directed to go to Kairaba Police Station. The police are yet to comment on the matter.
