By Arret Jatta
Last week, the former CEO of KMC, Sainabou Martin-Sonko told the Local Government Commission of Inquiry that one Alieu Danso offered her a D30,000 bribe which she took, however, Danso testified at the commission Monday and said the D30,000 wasn’t a bribe but a loan Sainabou took from him.
Asked by Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez if Mrs Martin-Sonko ever asked him to give her any amount as a kick back or bribe for a business transaction, he said she had never asked him and if she did, he could not remember.
“But at some point in time you gave her D30,000,” Gomez put it to her to which he replied: “Yes I gave Sainabou D30,000 hand to hand.”
Asked to explain the circumstances, Danso stated: “About the D30,000, Baboucarr [a council worker] called and told me he was in Sainabou’s office and said to me that Sainabou needed to see me. I went to her office and she told me that she was travelling to Senegal but she doesn’t have money, and asked to borrow D30,000. That she will return the money when she returns from Senegal and also help me get the D4 million I told Baboucarr that I needed.”
He said he had on him money he withdrew from the bank to pay his workers and gave the D30,000 from that as a loan.
“I told her when you are back, let me not ask you for my money, just refund the money. This is what transpired,” he further explained.
Asked whether he was in the business of going around lending money to people,” Danso retorted: “No I just borrowed her the money because of the trust I had in her.”
“What kind of trust, is it because you had an interest in that office?” Counsel Gomez asked the witness.
