By Fatou Sowe
A tearful police Commissioner Abdoulie Sanneh, yesterday told the High Court presided over by Justice Kumba Sillah-Camara that he regretted identifying Solo Sandeng as the ring leader of 14 April protest to Yankuba Badjie, the former director general of the National Intelligence Agency.
He said if he had known that Solo would be killed he wouldn’t have identified him. Sanneh made this position known to the court while continuing his testimony under cross-examination by Lawyer C E Mene, the defence counsel for Badjie who is the 1st accused person in the Solo Sandeng murder trial.
This piece of evidence came as a result of a contention put to him by lawyer Mene that he regretted because his action of identifying Solo triggered the chain of events that resulted in his death.
PW3 said from Westfield he accompanied his commissioner Kebba Bojang to the headquarters in Kanifing where he found those arrested sitting on the floor in the hall and their phones put inside a basket, adding that there were also several security officers including military intelligence officers from State House.
He said that upon arrival of the security chiefs at PIU, the then IGP Yankuba Sonko asked him to brief them on the situation at Westfield.
He said he was asked by Yankuba Badjie to identify the ring leaders of the protest and he identified Solo Sandeng, Nogoi Njie and Modou Ngum.
The witness said he gave his phone to one of the detainees Yabo and also twice to Solo Sandeng who also gave him D3, 500 to give to someone.
In response to a claim by the defence counsel that he concocted the story just to launder his image for participating in identifying Solo, the witness said he gave Solo the phone before identifying him to Yankuba Badjie. He also stated that the five identified ring leaders were taken to the NIA and the rest to Mile 2 on the instructions of Yankuba Badjie. He further denied the defence’s allegation that the big five were already battered by the arresting officers and Solo was bleeding, saying that he did not see bruises on any of them and that Solo was looking fit and healthy.
He also denied trying to shift the blame of what happened to Solo and the 4 others from the police to the NIA.
Hearing continues on 11 December 2017.
