Austrian nationals Manuel Stofleth Mitterer and his partner Angelika Mitterer on Friday triggered a violent confrontation at the Edge Apartment building in Kololi as they frantically attempted to force their way into the apartments, an amateur footage of the standoff showed.
The Edge apartment complex is currently at the centre of dispute between Manuel Stofleth Mitterer, Ebrima Solomon Tamba and Marcel Limbertus Van Andel.
According to sources, the trio came together a few years ago to build Edge to sell apartments off-plan.
However, their partnership reportedly ran into trouble when Solomon and Marcel suspected Manuel of diverting the proceeds from the apartment sales. Manuel, according to sources, told his business partners and the police that he invested the proceeds in bitcoins. He denied the police access to his cryptocurrency details, triggering the slamming of “disobedience of lawful order” charges against him.
The Edge apartment building is now under the supervision of the Sheriff Division of the high court for a high court order.
On Friday, Manuel and his partner Angelika went to the building and tried to force their way into some of the apartments, claiming that they wanted to collect stuff therein. However, when the Edge management told them to explore the proper channel as the property has been placed under the supervision of the Sheriff Division, they went berserk and started behaving dangerously to the guards and staff on duty. Some of the staff and guards were taken to hospital for medical examination after the matter was reported to the Tourist Security Unit(TSU). Banta Jaiteh, who has been alleged to have been supportive of Manuel and Angelika, was reportedly seen with one Momodou Samateh, two C.I.D officers, Manuel and Angelika.
One source said he suspected Banta Jaiteh of greasing the palms of the CID officers to back the Austrians, though JollofNews cannot independently verify this.
The source said the Austrians were emboldened by the backing they enjoyed from Jaiteh to behave the way they did.
Meanwhile, the Austrians and some individuals have reportedly opened an unlicensed cryptocurrency centre in Bijilo, which was sometime this year busted by the police.
“Since the police swooped on the centre and arrested suspected collaborator Pa Ebou Senghore, nothing remarkable has so far happened in the case. Banta Jaiteh is the ringleader,” one source claimed.
Both the police and Jaiteh could not be reached for comment on the issue.
JollofNews cannot also establish whether Banta Jaiteh gifted the officers at TSU D2000 as alleged by one source.
