but with some mango trees and PW2 was coming from the area with the
mango trees. The accused was about 20 meters away from them and he
ran through a broken fence into a street called Mauritani. She now says
there was a fence where they found the accused and that when they
initially saw the accused, they were only two of them, but were later
joined some boys from the neighborhood. As they ran after the accused
she did not have a complete focus on him, but it was not a wrong person
who had been arrested. He was wearing a white shirt.
It was at this point that the prosecution elected to close its case. The
defense elected to lead sworn evidence in rebuttal to the charge which is
sufficiently reflected in the testimony of the accused.
According to the accused, he lives in Bansang and is a tyre-man. He said
on that fateful day, as he was returning home from work, he met a
crowd. The crowd began throwing stones at him shouting thief, thief. He
ran into somebody’s compound and they followed him there. He ran into
the compound because the crowd was shooting him with stones and he
needed to protect himself. After he was arrested the crowd informed him
that PW2 was missing and he was the one who had taken her away on his
bicycle. He was taken to the police station. Before he was arrested he
was on the road pumping his bicycle. The prosecution witnesses who
testified in this case were amongst those who were chasing him. He told
the crowd and the police that he was not the one who carried PW2 on his
bicycle. He did not take any little girl into the bush. Exhibit “A” is a
direct replica of the viva vorce evidence of the accused.
6