By Francis H. Murray
Justice Cosmotina Jarrett of the High Court in Freetown has discharged the former Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Alpha Osman Timbo, and four others on a 15-count indictment of corruption and other related offences brought against them by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Delivering her ruling on Thursday, Justice Jarrett said the prosecution had failed to bring any evidence before the court against the accused persons and she was left with no alternative but to discharge the matter.
ACC’s prosecution lawyer in the matter, Calvin Mantsebo, told the court that the commission had no evidence against all the accused persons in respect of the 15 counts.
Lawyer Charles Abass Bangura, who represented the 4th accused, Mamusu Massaquoi, who was the former Director of Nutrition at the ministry and Osman Jalloh the lead defense lawyer for Minister Timbo, applied for the court to award costs on behalf of their clients. But the judge refused the application.
In response to the dramatic turn of events in the courtroom, Mr Timbo told journalists that he was pleased to have been exonerated and that justice was served in the matter amidst what he claimed were attempts by some people to tarnish his image.
‘‘I want to thank God Almighty. I knew that I was always innocent in this particular issue and I thank God that justice finally prevailed. I want to congratulate the ACC for having realized that in this particular issue and especially on my own side, that they won’t be able to secure a conviction. So it is important that they realized that and came out with no evidence on this matter. I have always believed that I have served this country very well and that people just wanted to tarnish my image,’’ he stated.
He also thanked the judge for the manner in which she had conducted a case that had generated a lot of debate.
Minister Timbo, his deputy Emily Kadiatu Gogra and former Permanent Secretary Charles Tom Kamanda were accused of misappropriating 49, 000 50kg bags of rice meant for the government’s school feeding program between 1st October and 31st December 2019 in Freetown.
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