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Lawyer duped in land transaction

By Saio Marrah

Lawyer Ali Theo Turay, has told a magistrate in Freetown that 42 year old Ibrahim Koroma of Kabba Drive collected two hundred million old Leones (Le200,000,000) plus $550 from him on the pretext that he had four plots of land for sale.

Lead in by Police Inspector Tamba Abel Sellu on Monday 24th July, Lawyer Turay said on a date between May 25 and June 2, 2023, he was at his office when the accused, who is a mason, and one Augustine Bayo a surveyor, came to him saying they had the four plots of land for sale. He said the accused also showed him a survey plan bearing his name after which he sent three of his boys together with the surveyor to the site where neighbours also confirmed that the accused owned the land.  

According to Lawyer Turay, he then made an advance payment of eighty Million old Leones (Le80, 000,000) for which the accused issued a receipt with Bayo the surveyor signing as a witness. According to him they then discussed the total cost of the land and agreed to three hundred and thirty-five million old Leones (335,000,000).

Lawyer said a day after giving the accused one million old Leones to the accused to brush the land to prepare to survey it, the accused returned to his office where the he (complainant) paid another eighty-five million old Leones (85,000,000) to the accused in the presence of his clerk, but that the accused did not give him a receipt for that payment because it was already dark but they agreed that the receipt would be issued to him the next day at the site.

When he (complainant) went to the site the following day, the accused failed to-avail himself and that he failed to show up on two occasions to sign the receipt.

According to Lawyer Turay he also made another payment of five hundred thousand old Leones to the surveyor in fulfilment of a commitment he had made only to discover that the accused was only a caretaker and not the owner of the land. He said when he finally contacted the real owner of the land; the lady told him she was also searching for the accused because he had also sold her land elsewhere.

He said he then invited the accused to his office to collect his balance payment but that it was at that point that he called in the police to arrest the accused.  

He said the police conducted a search at the house of the accused, and found seventy million old Leones (Le70, 000,000), which they returned to him.

The accused is facing two counts of conspiracy and receiving money by false pretence. The case resumes on the 7th August 2023.

Copyright © 2023 Politico (26/07/23)

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