By Saio marrah
The third prosecution witness in the on-going manslaughter case involving the former Skye Bank Manager Ikubolaje Nicol has testified that before the death of the deceased, Sinnah Kai Kargbo, a medical doctor had warned her to stop taking a particular harmful substance or risk death.
Maada Bundeh who described himself as a close friend to the deceased told the court on Friday 3rd May 2024, that the deceased confided in him after receiving the warning from her doctor.
Under cross examination by defence lawyer Rowland Wright that the deceased told him she visited the hospital because her heartbeat became unusual. According to him, the deceased did not name the harmful substance the doctor warned him against but he too encouraged her to adhere to the medical advice. He said the deceased urged him not to disclose the information to the accused.
Meanwhile, the state prosecution has argued that in the witness’s statement to police, there was no mention of the information about the deceased being warned against a substance by his doctor.
The judge, Momoh Jah-Stevens told the state to put that objection in their address to the court and cautioned that evidence could be drawn from anywhere not just from a police statement.
Witness Bundeh, a driver at the Skye Bank serving the accused Nicol, told the court that he had been working with the accused for 10 years at GT Bank and then three years at Skye Bank. He said while they were at the GT Bank, the deceased was a student at the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) and she visited the accused at the bank on a regular basis.
Led in by the Lead State Prosecutor for that session, Aruna Jalloh the witness said on Sunday 16th October 2022, he was at his residence at Goderich about 7 a.m. preparing for church when his boss, the accused, called him on phone.
He said the accused told him to meet him urgently at the Shuman Hospital because her girlfriend, the deceased, was seriously sick. The witness said upon his arrival at the hospital the nurses told him that the deceased’s corpse had been placed in a vehicle outside because the hospital did not have a mortuary. He said when he saw the corpse; he called the accused who told him that he was at the house of the deceased’s mother and that the mother had agreed to take the corpse to the mortuary.
He said the accused told him to take the corpse to Colombia Davies Funeral home and that he was accompanied by one Salifu.
The witness said at the mortuary, he called the accused and handed the phone to one of the staff and that the accused instructed the Columbia Davies staff to register his name as the person who took the corpse to the place. He said he was then instructed to meet the accused at his lawyer’s place at Tengbeh town where they were waiting for other respectable people to go and inform the father of the deceased about what had happened.
Witness Bundeh told the court that they, including the relatives of the deceased went together to the mortuary but that while there an argument started between the accused and the relatives of the deceased. He said the relatives of the deceased did not allow the accused to move from the mortuary, they called police and the accused was arrested.
Ikubolaje Nicol is indicted on three counts of conspiracy to commit manslaughter, manslaughter and perverting the course of justice. The case resumes tomorrow, 7th May this year.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (06/05/24)
