By Bruce Asemota
The Supreme Court of The Gambia presided over by Chief Justice Hassan Jallow has affirmed the death sentence passed on Agibu Jallow, a death row prisoner.
Agibu Jallow was accused of wilfully strangling to death one Isatou Jallow on 4 June 2009 in Bullock village, Foni.
He was sentenced to death in 2013 by Justice Awa Bah of the high court in Banjul.
Agibu Jallow was tried with one Babucarr Bah who was charged with the offence of being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to four years imprisonment.
But dissatisfied with the judgment of the high court, Agibu went to the Court of Appeal which heard his case and dismissed his appeal.
Undeterred, he filed an appeal at the Supreme Court challenging the conviction and the sentence.
Delivering judgment, Justice Cherno Jallow disclosed that the facts of the case reveal that the Agibu and Isatou were in a relationship and had one child together.
That on the fateful 4 June 2009, he visited her in Bullock accompanied by Babucarr Bah and Isatou agreed to meet him on the outskirts of the village. Isatou went to the rendezvous carrying her baby. The following morning her body was found at the meeting place with the helpless baby by her.
The Supreme Court disclosed that the Agibu raised accident as his defence but failed to prove so before the trial and the Court of Appeal.
The Supreme Court further disclosed that Agibu claimed that Isatou’s cloth was stuck to the door of his car while she was alighting and he drove off dragging without noticing it.
Agibu also claimed that he could not have immediately stopped the car because a truck was behind and he feared it would have struck his car if he had stopped at that moment.
But the court stated that Agibu’s oral evidence was inconsistent with the evidence in the postmortem report.
The Supreme Court disclosed that the report found no external injuries on Isatou’s body but reflected rope marks on her neck and a broken neck.
The court stated that it was satisfied that Agibu killed Isatou and that the prosecution discharged its obligation of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Consequently, it upheld the conviction and sentence of Agibu for the murder of Isatou.
