Boye Bah Opens Defence in Allege False Information Case

FOROYAA Newspaper (Serrekunda)

Mamadou Dem

1 June 2011

Muhammed Boye Bah who is charged with giving false information to a public officer, on Monday, 30th May, opened his defence before acting Principal Magistrate Alagbe Taiwo Ade of the Banjul Magistrates’ Court.

During his defence testimony, Bah told the court that he is a court interpreter and that he can recall the 3rd day of June 2010. He said on this day he wrote a letter to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice in which he lodged a complain against the former commissioner of Bansang Police Station, Pa Assan Sylva and the NIA operative Ebrima Camara for arresting and detaining him on two occasions. He said his first arrest was on the 14th of May 2010 and the second was on the 17th May 2011 and taken to the Bansang Police Station on both occasions.

Segga Gaye, Counsel for the accused person, asked “You said you wrote a petition addressed to the Ministry of Justice and the charge sheet before the court is that you gave false information to the office of the President. Apart from that petition, was there any other petition you wrote?”

In response, the witness said the second petition was written by Jan,the Belgian donor, and was addressed to the office of the President. He said Jan has been coming to the Gambia for the past fourteen years and that he came to Bansang on two occasions.

“When did you meet him at Bansang?”asked Gaye.

“In March 2010,” replied Bah.

Testifying further, Bah told the court that Jan wrote his petition on the very day he (Bah) wrote his. He added that he saw the petition written by Jan and that he can analyze it as it was through him that the petition written by Jan was sent to the office of the President.

At this juncture, the petition written by Jan was shown to the accused person by the defence counsel. Mr. Boye Bah told the court that the petition was written by the donor and addressed to Secretary General’s Office of the President and it was dated on the 3rd June 2010.

Counsel Gaye applied to tender the said petition in evidence as an exhibit.

Sub Inspector Camara, representing the Inspector General of Police, objected to the application on the grounds that the accused was not the author of the letter and neither the competent custodian of the letter. He argued that being a friend or partner does not warrant the accused to be the custodian of the letter. He urged the court to reject the letter and mark it as rejected exhibit.

Defence counsel Gaye in reply argued that it is the relevance of the document that matters and that he is relying on section 3 of the Evidence Act 1994. He added that P W 1 (Pa Assan Sylva) had testified in court that on the 5th of June 2010 a petition was filed against him by the accused together with his Belgian friend, Jan.

The trial Magistrate ruled that the said petition written by Jan be admitted and marked as exhibit.

Continuing his testimony, Mr. Boye Bah told the court that before they wrote the petitions, they were involved in a refurbishment of three classroom blocks at Bansang Lower Basic School; that he used to translate for Jan and that he was the mediator between the contractor and Jan.

He further told the court that he started working on the said class room blocks, but before doing that he went to the treasurer and village Alkalo to confirm his association with Jan. He said the Alkalo confirmed it and it was a welcome idea from him. He said he went with the Alkalo together with the donor to the said school to identify the three classroom blocks which were to be refurbished.

“The prosecution alleges that you started going to the School without the consent of the School Committee. What do you have to say about this?” asked Gaye.

“It is unfounded as the Alkali was aware,” Bah responded.

He further told the court that apart from the Alkali the other people who know about the project were the Head Master of Bansang Lower Basic School, his deputy and almost all the members of the committee. He said the head master was always commending him for a job well done and apart from that he also instructed the caretaker to give them a key to the store where they can keep their materials and another key to the tap.

Bah told the court that the three classroom blocks are not completed because they ran out of money.

The case is adjourned to Monday 6th June 2011 for continuation of hearing.

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