By Musa Bah:
In November of 2018, a gentleman by the name Mamadou Bailo Barry, a barber at Tabokoto was duped of an amount of forty-nine thousand dalasis by a man who claimed to be a marabout. The man said that he was going to do some work for Bailo which will open him up and his luck will triple.
On a third visit in as many days, he gave Mamadou Bailoa concoction which he applied on his body and from then on seemed to have been under the thumb of the man. Whatever the man told him, he did. He repeatedly asked him for money and he willingly obliged.
Most of the amount, he had to get from friends and family as he could not raise the money readily. A friend then advised him that he should involve the police. He called an officer and told him. They arranged to meet the man and that is how the suspect was arrested.
He was taken first to Piccadilly Police Station but they could not convince him to speak. Finally, they took him to the Anti-crime Unit headquarters in Bijilo where they met and complained to Mr Gorgi Mboop, the head of the ACU himself.
Well, he was told to bring his witnesses which he did and they all submitted their signed statements. Many weeks later, he went back to find out if there was any progress on the case only to be told that the guy had been bailed and had gone away. He tried to get in touch with the man but could not.
After a lot of frustrations, he went there to demand to be put in touch with either the accused or his bailer. They told him that the man who bailed the accused is one Metre Adama Bah. He met Metre Bah but he could not tell him anything other than that the man was only one of three who did the deed. But Mamadou said he met and dealt with only one man and thus he was the one whom he could accuse.
After almost a year, he went to the ACU again only to be told that they cannot take the matter to court. He said one Mr Bah of the CID unit at the ACU was the one who told him that the accused only spent eight thousand out of the forty-nine thousand, that the rest was shared between the two other collaborators who are still at large. He was told that the man can only refund the eight thousand he spent.
Of course, Mamadou refused to collect eight thousand because he owes so many people from whom he collected all the monies he gave to the accused. Now, that Mr Bah of the CID unit at the ACU tells him not to go there anymore.
The man has nowhere else to go and his money has been taken away. He reported it and helped the police get the man responsible who eventually confessed to the act but twelve months later, no court case, no money and no hope in sight for this poor man. What is our country coming to?
I could not reach the police PRO for comments.
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