By Omar Bah
Gibril Jallow, a 31-year-old Gambian deported from the US last year, has been arrested for allegedly attempting to rob EJ Foreign Exchange Bureau in Kololi.
Confirming the news to journalists yesterday, Police officer commanding Serekunda, Superintendant Foday Fofana said the attempted robbery happened at around 1500 hours on Wednesday on the new Kololi road.
Speaking further at the crime scene in Kololi, Superintendant Fofana said the suspect has since been charged with attempted robbery and going armed in public.
He said Gibril Jallow, who claimed to be a native of Sibanor and currently helping the police in their investigations and one Alasana Jallow alias Mike, came to the Bureau as normal customers pretending to change D300 into Euros.
“But when the agent, Tida Darboe, told them she does not change dalasi into Euro, one of the suspects (Gibril Jallow) entered inside the cage and then took out a knife and threatened the agent to hand over the Euros to him otherwise consequences would follow,” he stated.
He said the other suspect too, who is at large, took out a knife. “That is the time Tida started screaming and the neighbors around came and shielded the door. But the suspects threatened to stab them, and during the struggle, the other suspect (Alasan Jallow) managed to escape.”
“But they were able to get hold of Gibril Jallow, disarmed him and handed him over to the police,” he explained.
He said there is a vigorous search for the escaped suspect and that investigations are in progress.
Suspect’s criminal records
Meanwhile, Superintendant Fofana said: “During the interrogations the suspect (Gibril Jallow) admitted that whiles in the US, he was involved in criminal activities and that when he was just 17 years old, he was convicted of assault and domestic violence…And again in 2012, he was also convicted and sentenced to 2 years of crimes related to drug and armed offences.”
Superintendant Fofana added: “The accused person also admitted that since he was deported in March 2017 and life is unbearable, the only option he has is to be involved in criminal activities. He also told us that this has nothing to do with attitude or the circumstances that he found himself, because he was doing the same thing in the US.”
Fofana called on Gambians to be vigilant about the deportees. “We should be vigilant and not only to be vigilant but we need to provide them moral support especially at family level, so that it will enable them to reintegrate back into the society in a more productive manner.”
Superintendant Fofana hailed the role played by the community of Kololi in the arrest of the suspect and called on other communities to emulate their efforts by volunteering information to the Police in order to facilitate their work.
