By Saio Marrah
30-year- old Mohamed Sankoh, and 42 -years -old Mohamed Alie Kamara, first and second accused persons respectively have been remanded for missing 334 cartoons of tiles at a construction site of Hema Trading and Construction Company.
During his testimony before the Principal Magistrate, Mark Ngegba of the Pademba Road court No.1 on Wednesday 8th February, 2023, the prosecution witness and Operation Manager of the Company, Ramadan Zayat, said on the 27th December last year, his boss informed him about a theft incident at their site behind the American Embassy.
Upon his arrival at the site, he met the foreman, Hassan Jabba, who informed him about the 334 cartoons of tiles that had gone missing from the store.
Zayat said when they reached the store it was observed that neither the lock nor the door was broken.
The operation manager therefore asked the store keeper about the missing items, but he denied any wrongdoing.
Thus, he said they took him to their head office at 13 Bolling Street in Freetown and that he was handed over to their General Manager. When he was asked by the management, he confessed to having sold the tiles to Kamara, the second accused.
At that moment the first accused who was the storekeeper, informed the management that the buyer of the tiles resided at around Leicester Peak Junction.
They eventually went there together with police personnel, he was identified by the first accused and arrested him as well.
Zayat said they were taken to the Mountain Police Division for further investigation.
In his cross examination, the defence lawyer of the first accused, Ahmed Atata Mansaray, challenged the prosecution witness that his client admitted to have stolen and sold the 334 cartoons of tiles at the office because he was beaten up by the management of the company, but Zayat denied the claims.
Mansaray also told the prosecution witness that the store keeper was not the only person that had access to the store key, but the prosecution witness declined answering that question.
Another lawyer representing the second accused, Hassan Thullah, asked the prosecution witness if he had ever known Kamara as a person that sells tiles, but did not respond to that question as well.
Copyright © 2023 Politico Online (10/02/23)
