By Nicholas Bass
NCA2 Lamin Mambureh, a narcotic officer attached to Sanyang Police Station, on Tuesday,23rd August 2022 testified in the ongoing drug case involving one Omar Fatty presided over by Principal Magistrate Isatou Dabo of the Brikama Magistrate’s Court.
The officer is the PW4 in the case, according to him, on the 18th of January 2021 he was assigned by the officer-in-charge of Sanyang Police Station to take the cautionary and voluntary statement of the accused, Omar Fatty.
He added that he invited Lamin Bojang as an independent witness before he wrote the cautionary and voluntary statement of the accused person.
“I explained the cautionary and voluntary statement to the accused, Omar Fatty in the language he understands’’, NCA2 Mambureh told the court.
The cautionary and the voluntary statement were tender and admitted into evidence and marked as exhibits under section 3 of the Evidence Act 1994 by prosecutor N. F. Korta told the court.
“I hereby wish to tender the cautionary and the voluntary statement to be admitted into evidence and marked as exhibits under section 3 of the Evidence Act 1994’’, police prosecutor N. F. Korta.
However, the accused Omar Fatty objected to the content of the cautionary and voluntary statement stating that it was not read to him in the language he understood and he emphasized that he was promised to be set free after signing the cautionary and voluntary statement.
At this juncture, the presiding magistrate Isatou Dabo acknowledged the plea of the accused Omar Fatty and she stated that the cautionary and voluntary statements are admissible according to section 3 of the Evidence Act. Therefore, she admitted the cautionary statement as exhibit 1 and voluntary statement exhibit 2 before adjourning the case to the 31st August 2022. Nuha F. Korta represented the IGP.