By Tabora Bojang
A principal suspect and several others were arrested over the weekend on suspicion of murdering a civil servant, police confirmed.
Ousman Jarju, a staff of the National Audit Office, was stabbed to death Wednesday by suspected thieves who attempted to rob him at the Palma Rima beach.
According to police sources, one Hadim Jeng, 18, was arrested in Bakoteh in connection with the killing and charged with murder.
Another suspect, Muhammed Njie was equally arrested and is helping police with their investigations.
Police sources revealed that its investigators have recovered the knife and other evidential materials allegedly used by the suspects in the commission of the crime.
The police further disclosed that they made a breakthrough after recovering a bag containing several national documents, a notebook, air tickets and boarding pass all bearing the name of Ousman, found at a football field and a street in Bakoteh which prompted them to beef up investigations within the Bakoteh area and surroundings leading to multiple arrests.
According to other police sources, the suspect was arrested by the Tourism Security Unit and handed over to the Kotu police station where he confessed to have taken part in the robbery and stabbing of Ousman Jarju with his accomplices.
The source further added that the suspect initially denied knowledge of the crime but following the arrest of about a dozen suspects at a crime hideout in Bakoteh one of them [arrested suspects] confirmed to investigators at Kotu police that he saw the principal suspect Hadim and 3 others at the Palma beach area on Wednesday.
“After intensive interrogations by the police the principal suspect [Hadim] confessed to have attacked the deceased with one Muhammed Njie and another friend [name withheld] and stabbed the deceased with a knife while Muhammed and the other friend snatched the bag away, but they later met at Bakoteh,” a police source said.
Second suspect Muhammed Njie also corroborated Hadim’s statement detailing his involvement in the crime. He [Njie] claimed he got D100 from the money stolen from Ousman’s bag.
