Hon. Nenneh Freda Gomez, Nominated Councillor KMC
By Landing Ceesay
The Inspector General of Police (IGP) has charged Mr. Jean L. Marenah with stealing properties worth D700,000 belonging to Nenneh Freda Gomez, the Country Director of Healing Health Care (HHC).
Mr. Marenah faces charges of theft under Section 252 of the Criminal Code Volume III, Revised Laws of The Gambia 2009.
The IGP alleges that between October 2023 and 2024, at Kairaba Avenue in the Kanifing Municipality, Mr. Marenah, an employee of HHC, stole three laptops (Dell and Asus valued at $4,485.10), eight USB dongles valued at $66.07, twenty-four tablets valued at $551, and twenty-six Samsung tablets valued at $4,810. The total value in dalasis for these items is D700,000.00, all properties of Nenneh Freda Gomez.As the first prosecution witness (PW1), Nenneh Freda Gomez testified about the events leading to the charges. She explained that one of her responsibilities at Healing Health Care is overseeing the organisation’s day-to-day operations, and identified the accused as an IT Manager at HHC who had worked there for less than two years.
“Did anything happen during the period of the accused person’s employment?” Inspector Jallow, the Prosecuting Officer appearing for the IGP, asked Nenneh.
“He (Jean L. Marenah) has been coming to work and performing his duties as assigned until sometime last year 2023 between October and December when his productivity level diminished and became inaccessible not through emails, phone calls, text messages or even personal contacts. After several efforts to get into contact with him, the call proved futile. We now start to get in touch with his close friends and family members both in the Gambia and in the Diaspora.
“Because we were worried about his whereabouts and welfare. All these people will tell us that they have contacted him, he is well and fine and has promised them that he will reach out to the organisation, but he never did.
I personally, as the Country Director, took it upon myself to contact his wife, whom I know even though we know each other. So in a period of a month, I have been in an engagement with the wife, to help us ask the husband to reach out to the organisation. In which she has always responded that ‘I told him (Jean L. Marenah) and he said he would respond,” Nenneh Freda Gomez told the court.
Nenneh Freda testified that, at a certain point, the accused person’s wife stopped answering her calls and responding to her text messages. She stated that, despite multiple attempts to communicate with the accused, it became clear that he had “blatantly” abandoned his responsibilities with the organisation. Freda added that the accused instructed his wife to stay away from the matter and refrain from informing him about it.
“I had a meeting at the office level to inform them that the matter will be reported to the Police,” Nenneh told the court.
Nenneh Freda further asserted that she reported the matter to the Kairaba Police Station, where her statement was obtained.
Nenneh Freda said the Police asked her to provide them with the list of the items she was claiming, and she did as requested by the Police.
“What happened to these items?” Inspector Jallow asked.
“These items were put under his (Jean L. Marenah) custody as IT Manager. But because he was not coming to the office, we could not have access to these items,” Nenneh Freda testified.
When asked to list the documents for the court, Nenneh Freda testified that the items placed under the custody of the accused person were 3 laptops, 26 Samsung tablets, 24 tablet cases, and 8 dangles.
“The items were bought at different times and receipts would show the dates of when the items were bought. The total value of the 3 laptops at the time was 4,485.10 dollars. The value of the 8 dongles at the time was 66.07 dollars. The value of the 26 Samsung tablets at the time was 4,810 dollars. The value of the 24 tablet cases at the time was 551 dollars. However, all these items were bought to keep the work going in the office. The total was 9,900.17 dollars. At the time the report was made to the Police, the value of the items in Gambian Dalasi was at D700,000.00 at the official rate of 70.6 per dollar,” she testified.
“In whose hand were these items missing?” Inspector Jallow asked.
“The items were placed in the custody of the accused person (Jean L. Marenah) as the IT Manager. And since he is still unable to produce these items to date, we concluded that it got missing from him,” Nenneh answered.
“Did you ask him (Jean L. Marenah) about the items?” Inspector Jallow asked.
“He (Jean L. Marenah) avoided contact with any of us through any means until when he got arrested he accepted to have the items in his possession at his residence,” Nenneh responded.
Nenneh Freda further told the court that CID Officers escorted Jean L. Marenah to his residence to retrieve the items. She said the CID Offices found out that the items were not at his residence.
It is Nenneh Freda’s testimony that Jean L. Marenah then told the CID officers that the items might have been at another office where he works. She said when the CID Officers visited Marenah’s other office, they were only able to retrieve one laptop, seven dongles and three tablet cases.
“He (Jean L. Marenah) claimed that the missing items might have been taken by the cleaner,” Nenneh Freda told the court.
“Was anyone in the office informed when the accused person removed these alleged items from the office?” Commissioner Sanneh asked Nenneh Freda.
“No, he (Jean L. Marenah) would sometimes take the equipment, go home with them and bring them back to the office,” Nenneh Freda responded.
Commissioner Sanneh then applied for an adjournment so that the recovered Items would be made available in the court to be tendered into evidence.
The application was then granted, and the case was adjourned to the 28th of August 2024 for continuation.