By: Nicholas Bass
Abdoulie Keita, a Senegalese businessman told the magistrate court in Kanifing that his ex-wife, Mamie Fatou Sallah instructed him to withdraw over 45,200 euro (forty-five thousand two hundred) form their joint account at Global Properties.
According to the court record, Abdoulie Keita, sometime in July, 2021 at Global Properties office at Kairaba Avenue in the Kanifing Municipality of the Republic of The Gambia, alleged to have fraudulently withdrew the sum of €45, 229 equivalent to two million, six hundred and twenty-three thousand, two hundred and eighty-two Dalasis (D2, 623,282.00) being monies given to him for safe keeping by Mamie Fatou Sallah, thereby committed an offence.
He pleaded not guilty to the three (3) counts of trustees fraudulently disposing of trust property, stealing and stealing that were presented by the prosecution presented four witnesses to prove their case against him.
Testifying, before principal magistrate Mbai Sallah of Kanifing Magistrates’ Court, Abdoulie Keite on Monday said that when his ex-wife instructed him to withdraw over 45,200 euro from Global Properties, she also told him [the accused] to give out over 15,000 euros to few individuals, adding that the remaining balance was 35,000 euro.
” I invested the balance of 35,000 euro into a business and monthly I paid D42,000 rent to my wife without owning her anything,”, the accused said.
He further told the court he did not steal from his ex-wife, stating if he had stolen money from her would not have stayed in the same apartment with his ex-wife, Sallah.
Abdoulie denied forging a Gambian passport, adding that he used his money to withdraw over 45,200 euro from Global Properties.
He deduced that prior to his custody, the Immigration officers went into his rented apartment where he was arrested and taken to Immigration headquarters at Banjul for further questioning before he was handed to the police.
The accused, Abdoulie claimed that one of his friends secured a police bail with more than one title deed of properties, stating thereafter he was given one money to pay the money he allegedly stole from his ex-wife which according to him was unsuccessful.
He accused his ex-wife, Sallah, of slapping him before her uncle and friend, but ‘’one officer Bakary Saidykan held me ”.
My ex-wife requested my cell phone and she deleted all our conversation messages, but I took the cellphone from her when she wanted to enter into my phone glarray ”, he said.
When quizzed by prosecuting officer, ASP Yahya S. Colley under cross-examination regarding how he (accused) introduced himself to his ex-wife Mamie Fatou Sallah,Abdoulie said that he introduced himself to her as a business.
Meanwhile, the accused Abdoulie Keita has accused his lawyer A Jarju of not representing him well before the court and he is now standing without any legal representation.
