By Fatoumata Konteh
Oumie Jabbie, the PW1 in the ongoing fake travel agency matter involving Bubacarr Bah and Abdou both from Abuko, on Tuesday, testified before the Bundung Magistrate Court presided over by Magistrate Dawda Fatty.
The accused, Bubacarr Bah and Abdou were charged with pretending to be agents of a travel agency that assists in arranging travel documents and taking people to Qatar by charging their victim, Oumie Jabbie, over D130,000.00 to take her son to Qatar.
In her narration, PW1, Oumie Jabbie, testified that his son once went through the back way to Europe but stucked in Libya where he spent two years before he was deported back to The Gambia.
She said, as a mother, she felt bad and so uncomfortable seeing her son in such a situation, and therefore she explained her son’s situation to her friend who in return discussed the matter with her son, Abdou.
PW1 continued in her narration that Abdou then promised to help by linking PW1 to one of his friends, Babucarr Bah, who he said used to help people travel abroad, and that she (PW1) agreed and allowed Abdou to run the process.
Nevertheless, she said, Abdou informed them that she should pay D100,000 to run the process faster.
“He first charged me the sum of D110,000 for the process to run fast but I first gave him D50,000 and when he came with Babucarr Bah to my house I gave him the remaining D60,000 and he promised that the process would not take longer time,” Oumie narrated.
Meanwhile, she said Baboucarr provided fake documents for her and told her that the process had an issue so she, Oumie, should add D20,000 to the previous payment to re-process the documents that was the last day she saw the accused, Baboucarr, and Abdou.
“Since I gave them the D20,000 which made it D130,000.00, that made it the last day I saw them and heard of them, too. I could not reach them each time I called them. So I got angry and reported the matter to the Bundung Police Station,” she enunciated.
However, the accused said only D20,000 out of D130,000.00 has been paid back from the total sum.
At this juncture, the case was adjourned to on the 8th of November 2024 for the two accused to give their testimony.