By Mohamed Foday Conteh
An archivist Brima Thullah who is a Prosecution witness in the trial of Alimamy Kamara who served as Minister of Youth Affairs and Ambassador to Iran in the last APC government, has told the Anti- Corruption Commission (ACC) court in Freetown that he spent more than 2 hours unsuccessfully looking for the asset declaration forms of the accused.
Thullah was led in evidence as the second prosecution witness by ACC lawyer, Joel Deen-Tarawally on Monday 2nd August 2021, following the testimony of the first witness, Brima Sesay an ACC investigator who had testified against the former minister at an earlier sitting.
Kamara is on trial for corruption related offences which principally include failure to declare his asset, income and liabilities for 9 years. The ACC is alleging that Kamara failed to declare his asset, income and liabilities during his 9 years as public servant in the then administration of former President Ernest Bai Koroma. Thullah spoke about his duties that include distribution of asset declaration forms, collection, processing and storing of asset forms at the Archive room at the ACC office. He also said that he knew the accused as a former public servant.
The witness said sometime in January this year, he was tasked by his boss, one Zainab A. Othman to look into the Archive section for asset declaration forms for the former minister. He said that he went into the said section and spent two hours searching for filled asset declaration forms of Kamara but with no success. He said he later gave the information to his boss who then asked him to present the matter to the Investigations Department of the ACC, which he did.
Counsel for Kamara, Africanus Sesay brought to the knowledge of the court that the said statement was only given to him a few minutes before his hh the proceeding and that he needed time to read through it, before his cross-examination. He made his plea to the judge by citing that the matter was that of a criminal nature that implicated his client. Justice Hannah Bonnie gave a 20 minute stand down for the defence to go through the said document.
During his cross-examination, after going through the 5 page statement, Lawyer Sesay enquired from the witness as to whether he was knowledgeable that there were no asset declaration forms between 2013 and 2014. Thullah said that he was aware that forms were not available in 2013, but not 2014. When asked about any service of notice to the former minister, he said that that was not his duty. He also stated that it was not within his knowledge whether notice was sent to Kamara or not but however agreed that it was his duty to distribute asset declaration forms.
During re-examination, ACC counsel Deen-Tarawally asked the witness to be specific whether distribution of forms was done individually. The witness said that he does not distribute forms to individuals but rather to Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Justice Bonnie, after deliberations by both counsels, adjourned the matter to the 23rd August 2021.
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