By Amadou Jadama in Kuntaur CRR
The manager of Jah Oil fuel station in Niani Wassu on Friday appeared before the Kuntaur Magistrates’ Court charged with stealing over D8M from her employer.
The accused, Mariama Ann, was arraigned before Magistrate M F Fofana on allegation of stealing exactly D8,945,510,00 from Jah Oil Company. The single charge she faces is stealing by clear or servant attracting a ten-year jail term.
Ann was responsible for daily activities including receiving cash from the pump attendants and depositing at Reliance Financial Services, during which process she allegedly stole D8,945,510,00 last October. She denied any wrong doing and was not represented in court.
Her request for bail was opposed by police prosecuting officer Sgt 2337 Njie who argued that investigations on the matter are still ongoing.
“Investigators are trying to find out whether the accused has opened any account with some banks and if she is granted bail, she might tamper with the investigations,” the policeman begged the court.
In her request for bail, Mariama Ann said she spent 16 days in detention and that she is a mother of two girls attending school under her care. At this juncture, she burst into tears.
The magistrate intervened and advised her to stop crying, and to hire a lawyer but the accused said she does not have any money to hire one.
At this stage, one Lawyer A Jarju present in court volunteered to come to her rescue and argued bail for the accused which was granted by the magistrate in the sum of nine million dalasi with two Gambian sureties, and one of the sureties’ must produce a landed property worth nine million dalasi within the jurisdiction of Kuntaur Magistrates’ Court.
The magistrate added that, if the accused is absent or leaves the jurisdiction, the sureties will be arrested to show cause why they should not forfeit their bail bonds.
