By Alieu Jallow
One Mustapha Barrow, a customs officer at the Gambia Revenue Authority, has been charged with stealing D1.1 million.
The Particulars of Offence reads: “Mustapha Barrow sometime in the month of February 2024 at diverse places in the Kanifing Municipality in the Republic of the Gambia, you fraudulently converted 1.100,000.00 (one million, one hundred thousand dalasis) to your own personal use, monies belonging to Mr. Ebou Njie, therefore committed an offence.”
While testifying before Magistrate Sallah Mbye, witness Mbye Drammeh stated that he handed the money to the accused in denominations of 200, which were placed in a box, and requested the accused to count it. He further testified that after receiving the money, he accompanied the accused to the flour factory where he parked his car.
In his defence, Mustapha Barrow refuted claims of accepting money allegedly placed in a box handed to him. Mbye Drammeh, identified as PW 1, claimed to have witnesses, naming one Mansour as an eyewitness, and stated that Ebou Njie contributed three hundred thousand, culminating in a total sum of one million, one hundred thousand.
The matter is adjourned to Tuesday, August 13, 2024, for a continuation of evidence in chief.
