By Abass Jalloh
Magistrate Mark Ngegba of the Pademba Road Court No. 1 in Freetown has remanded Abdulrahman Bayoh, a Security Guard at a construction site of the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), for allegedly stealing 16,500 (sixteen thousand five hundred) hollow cement blocks meant for the site.
Bayoh, 38, faces a charge of Larceny.
It is alleged that the accused between 1st September 2022 and 6th October 2022 at the IPAM site at Bureh Town, Peninsula, Freetown, stole blocks valued at NLe 297,000 (two hundred and ninety-seven thousand Leones), property of the university while in the custody of Adetola Otufowora.
In his testimony in court on Friday November 18, Otufowora, who is an architect at Femab Properties Limited at Siaka Stevens Street in Freetown, confirmed the accused being a guard at the location and that he knew him prior to the alleged stolen blocks.
Otufowora recalled that on the 6th October 2022 at around 5:20 p.m. he was called on the phone and went to Kent Police post where he found the accused with other men with a truck.
The accused was caught or arrested by the Bureh Town Chief, according to Otufowora.
He said the matter was transferred to the Waterloo Police Station and later to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters in Freetown, revealing that it was reported that 16,500 blocks were stolen.
Understand cross-examination, the witness said to him that it is possible that he could not ascertain whether it was the accused that was caught by the act. The witness said he could not because he was not the one who caught him.
The lawyer put it to him that there was no document in court to show the number of blocks, and the witness answered in the affirmative.
The matter comes up again on Friday 25th November 2022.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (21/11/22)
