By Abass Jalloh
Following the end of preliminary investigations between the State and musician Alhaji Amadu Bah aka LAJ, Magistrate Mark Ngegba at the Pademba Road Court No.1 in Freetown has committed the matter to the High Court of Sierra Leone.
Yesterday 16th August 2022, the defense counsel led by Madieu Sesay, submitted a writ of “no case submission” in court and later applied for bail for the accused before the commencement of the high court, asserting that the accused would not jump bail and that granting bail would not bring the matter to an end.
However, the bail was refused by the magistrate and the Sierra Leonean rapper continues to be on remand.
In his ruling, the magistrate stated that the pieces of evidence presented in court were sufficient for the accused to stand for trial in the high court, according to law.
On 12th June 2022, LAJ was arrested and charged with violently robbing the sum of four million two hundred thousand old Leones (Le 4,200,000) and assaulting a pump attendant occasioning actual bodily harm at the Leonco filling station at Water Street, Congo Cross, Freetown.
After a half-an-hour stand down in a bid to comprehend the writ submitted by the defense team, the state counsel, Yusif Isaac Sesay responded that the defense's submission “started on a bad footing and ended on a wrong footing also”.
Lawyer Sesay recalled the offences and emphasized that he led in five witnesses, three being factual and two formal respectively, noting that the former identified the accused which is an essential ingredient in linking an accused to a crime. The defense team never discredited that during cross-examination, according to Lawyer Sesay.
He further said that the defense at some point misunderstood the facts of the preliminary investigation and that it was not a trial in which the defense should cite wrong authorities, noting that section 118 was supposed to be cited in the CPA that is sidelined by the defense.
He said the sections cited by the defense were only applicable in trial and not in a preliminary investigation.
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