By Amadou Jadama
Principal Magistrate Anna Mendy of Brikama sentenced Senegalese Fatu Seïdi, to three years imprisonment after finding her guilty of a single count of desertion of a child.
Appearing before the court at the beginning of the trial, Fatu who was unrepresented, pleaded guilty to the charge.
She narrated that she was born in the Casamance, and resident in Sanyang Kombo South. “I was married and I have a daughter, but I became divorced. My child lives with my uncle’s wife in Sanyang. I went to Senegal, got pregnant and came to live with my uncle in Nyoffelleh, Kombo South. One day, I was travelling to Sanyang to visit my daughter when my stomach started aching aboard a vehicle near Brikama Jamisa School.
“I alighted the vehicle, went into an incomplete building. It was between 9pm and 10pm. At that moment, I did not notice that I was going into labour. I entered to ease myself. But I gave birth. I then wrapped the baby with some clothes, went to a nearby compound, and placed it on the steps of the compound gate.
“I did it so that when the people in the compound hear it crying, they would come out. Then I went to Brikama garage, boarded a vehicle to return to Senegal. On the way, I called the man who impregnated me and told him that I was delivered of a baby, but the child died. He requested a death certificate. Then and there, I revealed to him that I dumped the baby. He called my sister in The Gambia who instructed me to return which I did. Upon my arrival at the garage, she took me to the police,” she stated.
Police Prosecutor DSP Bittaye said on 18th January between 11pm and 12am, one Maimuna Jawo of Brikama Jamisa went to Brikama Suba Police Post with a newly-born baby she found abandoned by her compound gate. The baby was taken to the Brikama District Hospital and handed over to the Department of Social Welfare for safekeeping.
According to him, after her arrest Fatu Seïdi was charged and subsequently arraigned.
Delivering her sentence, Magistrate Mendy said: “I am tempted not to give the convict a custodial sentence due to the fact that the victim needs the mother for care and most especially, breast milk for survival. In light of the foregoing, this court hereby invokes Section 133 of the Criminal Offences Act 2025, and 268 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2025 and sentenced the convict Fatu Seïdi to a suspended jail term of three years.
She was ordered to provide a bail surety and be reporting to the SoS Centre for two years.”
The judge further ordered Fatu to live with her family in Sanyang for three years before she could move out of The Gambia with the baby.
