Two managers of Access Bank Barra branch have been arrested after the duos had tried to abscond with over twenty-one million dalasis (D21.4 million), Freedom Newspaper can authoritatively report. Banka manager Sarjo Corr and his Assistant Momodou Juldeh Jallow swept the bank’s safe deposit boxes and shutdown the Nigerian privately owned bank to abscond to neighboring Senegal, highly placed sources in heart of The Gambian government have intimated. Corr and Jallow were track down and later apprehended in Dakar, Senegal. The two bank officials are awaiting their subsequent transportation to Banjul to face justice.
The Access Bank Barra branch theft incident came to the attention of the Bank’s head office in Banjul yesterday (Monday), following complaints made by customers that the bank was closed, with all doors locked. Customers had spent hours queuing at the bank without seeing its staff.
Bank officials in Banjul later reported a case of missing bank officials in Barra, which prompted the police investigations.
The Freedom Newspaper has gathered that the theft occurred on Saturday morning. Saturday was declared as a public holiday.
Interestingly, the looted bank is directly opposite the Barra police station.
Superintendent Lamin Njie is the spokesman for The Gambia police force. Njie has confirmed the incident.
“Very well, what we understand is that yesterday, the customers came to the bank to do their usual transactions, but they could not access the bank because the doors are all closed. People have been gathered there for a while, so this led to a call to the management of the bank and eventually they decided to come to find out what was going on. When they came to the bank, they find out that it is true that these people couldn’t go into the bank to do their normal transactions because the doors are not opened. So, they tried to find out what was the reason because the two senior officers at the bank were supposed to be one Juldeh Jallow and Sarjo Corr. These were the people, who were supposed to have the keys to the bank, but they were not were to be found,” said Mr. Njie.
Njie says the bank’s management’s efforts to locate Jallow and Corr had proven futile and the Bank’s management later resorted to reporting the matter to the Barra police station.
“The police went this people to visiting the situation to find out what was really going on, and they realized that these two individuals are no where to be found. And this was the situation that led to the investigation that we are currently undergoing,” Superintendent Njie remarked.
When asked as to whether there was any information about the whereabouts of Mr. Corr and Jallow, the police spokesman responded in the negative. ” As of now, we are not sure yet where exactly these people are, our investigations are working hard to be able to locate them because we realize that preliminary investigations are showing that an amount of about D21 million dalasis is some kind of not accounted for. We are not sure where this money is or how, but the investigations are working hard to be able to ascertain facts around this D21 million dalasis that is said to be allegedly missing at the bank,” Njie added.
The Freedom Newspaper Editor further put it to the police spokesman that he has gathered from unimpeachable sources that the duos have been apprehended, and this what police spokesman Njie had to say: ” I have not received information about that yet. But like I said, the investigations are centered around the North Bank Region and the police are working very hard to be able to arrest them. There might be an update and once we get it, we will share it with you.”
Sarjo Corr hailed from Njogon village, Lower Niumi. He had two wives. His co accused person Momodou Juldeh Jallow is from Essau village, Niumi.
The Nigerian bank General manager, who was accompanied by four other Nigerian managers to Barra, was said to have collapsed upon realizing that the bank safes were empty.
Written By Pa Nderry M’Bai
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