By Mohamed Foday Conteh
Former Vice President Victor Bockarie Foh has reacted to Wednesday’s court ruling on the 2017 Hajj Gate scandal, saying it was a clear vindication that he never committed any wrong. Foh told Politico his innocence has been proven by the court but was quick to say he harbours no bitterness against anyone.
“I knew from the onset that it was all planted on me,” the former vice president said.
Foh dismissed any future return to politics and described himself as a retired politician and law-abiding citizen “laying low”.
He said the entire saga with regards the missing hajj money left him hurt but that he is equally not annoyed. “This is all part of the political ball-game,” he said.
He said he feels fulfilled that the court has ruled that he is ‘faultless and not guilty at all’.
The former Vice-President was set free by the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) Division of the High Court in Freetown.
The earlier ACC indictment alleged that Foh as Chairman of the 2017 Hajj Committee together with Sheka Sahid Kamara, Ibrahim Fackeh Conteh and Abubakarr Carew conspired together and misappropriated public funds amounting to eighty thousand United States Dollars ($80,000) which was part of a sum of money allocated to address hajj related issues in 2017.
All of the four committee men when arraigned in 2018, denied the allegations.
However, the evidence of Kamara named the former Vice President. Kamara said he was acting on the advice and directives of Foh when he asked him to take the money to Saudi Arabia to support hajj operations there.
He said when he went to the former vice president with the full amount, he gave him $20,000 and was told that the remaining $60,000 will be later sent to him in Saudi Arabia.
His testimony deduced that the said $60,000, however, was with his driver, a certain Alhaji who was to safe keep the money until the transmission of the said amount to Saudi Arabia was ready.
The former Vice-President, on the other hand, denied what Kamara told the judge and the ACC investigator. He denied ever instructing Kamara to retain the sum and to later send it to Saudi Arabia for hajj operations.
He also denied ever receiving $20,000 from Kamara on the 18th August 2017, before he was to travel to Saudi Arabia for hajj that year. He added that he was, in essence, too busy to have ever had conference with Kamara on that day as he alleged.
He affirmed that he became extremely busy with the aftermath of the 2017 mudslide disaster and thereby could not properly supervise the hajj committee to confirm he never gave any advice to Kamara about the use of the said money.
The former vice-president said, he was busy receiving Heads of State from other countries at the Lungi International Airport and presenting them at State House on that day. He added he was with them at the mudslide disaster site and burial ground and even saw them off at the Airport before he went home.
The case against Abubakarr Carew, former Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, (MSWGCA) was that the Prosecution believes he failed to comply with applicable guidelines and procedures when he approved a request from the Hajj Committee for the sum of $314,000.
The ACC were of the belief that the former Permanent Secretary failed to adhere to the objections of his superior, the minister with regards the disbursement.
Carew, in his defence, affirmed that he never received any instruction from his boss. This was corroborated by two Way Books tendered in court by the sixth defence witness, Alhaji Morlu Kanneh, a Services Officer from the said Ministry.
The tendered way books did not indicate that Carew received instructions from his boss with regards the said disbursement.
The case against Conteh was that he knowingly misled the Commission when he said it was only $60,000 that was dropped to the former vice-president when it was in essence $80,000.
According to the evidence in court, there was no proof that Conteh lied to the ACC.
The Judge noted that the State relied on the evidence of the fourth prosecution witness, Abass Justice Fynn noted that Abass was not present at the scene when the said money was delivered.
Justice Fynn, based on the evidences in court, found some important matters of interest that was not addressed by the prosecution.
Chief among them was a supposed recording of the event where the exchange of the money between Kamara and Foh took place.
The judge noted that the said video was never made available by both the State and the defendants in court even after he had ordered for the same in court. He considered this to be ‘unfortunate’.
He said it is the duty of the ACC to have preserved the said recording.
The Appeal’s Court Judge, based on the evidence since the start on the trial, cleared, Foh, Conteh and Carew of all charges they were arraigned for. He said that the State failed to prove that the three men were culpable.
On the other hand, he found the first accused, Kamara guilty on two counts.
He sentenced the old man to three years for each count after the ACC Prosecutor, Calvin Mantsebo, beckoned that the sentence should serve as a deterrent to others wanting to commit corruption related offences.
Justice Fynn, after the sentencing, ordered that both be run concurrently.
He also noted in court that Conteh jumped bail halfway through the trial and would have to answer for that albeit him being cleared of corruption.
After the sentencing, Kamara, dressed in a grey flowing gown placed both hands on his head as he continuously panned it from left to right. A middle-aged woman in a green African dress with teary eyes sitting next to him patted his back as the two prison guards with handcuffs entered the courtroom and led the accused away. He said to be a father of five children.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online 17/12/21
