By Amadou Jadama
Six people from Sotuma Sari in the Upper River Region have been arraigned at Basse for allegedly assaulting one Omar Sankareh over caste system dispute.
Abdoulie Sankano, Ebrima Kanteh, Essa Sowe, Musa J Sankano, Ambally Sankano and Bakary Camara appeared before Principal Magistrate Omar Jabang charged with three counts, conspiracy to commit felony, going arm in public and assault causing actual bodily harm. They all pleaded not guilty and they were unrepresented by a lawyer.
Prosecuting police officer SI Ebou Ceesay called his first witness, the victim, Omar Sankareh who explained that they were erecting a solar electrical lamp at Sotuma Sari, when Bakary Camara, the 6th accused, a griot, came drumming and singing that whosoever did not admit to being a slave, “then you did not know how your mother and your father gave birth to you” .
He said Camara refused to listen to all pleas for him to stop provoking and instead continued to visit other compounds with the same provocative song. The witness said the people he targeted are smiths, (metal workers) who reported him to Bakadagi police station. The witness said another of the accused persons Abdoulie Sankano, encouraged Camara to continue his offensive song and even came with a cutlass. ‘When I tried to disarm him, Sankano, he wounded me on the palm with the cultlass,’ the witness said. “My friends seized the cutlass from him and took him to Bakadagi police station while I was taken to the Health Centre for treatment,” the witness said. The trial continues on March 7 with all six accused persons denied bail and remanded at Jangjangbureh prisons.
