By Mohamed Foday Conteh
The appeal hearing of former Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Minkailu Mansaray against the findings of the Commissions of Inquiry (COI) has been slated for Tuesday 28th July 2021.
The former Minister, according to findings from the COI, will lose a house at Femi Turner, Goderich worth about $3 million. During the hearings at the COI, Counsel representing Mansaray said that the house in question was built by Umu Hawa Mansaray, daughter of the former Minister. Evidence from testimonies adduced at the COI posited that Umu Hawa was a nurse in the United Kingdom and that she had used the money from her medical earnings to erect the house through an aunt who is now deceased. According to the court, there was no financial evidence in the affidavits.
It was against this backdrop that the former Minister filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal in Freetown.
Lawyer Ady Macauley, representing the appellant pleaded with the Judge to give an additional 3 days to the original date set for filing of correspondences and synopsis to the Court and State Counsel. Lawyer Macauley said that he had wanted the oral argument to begin on the 9th of July 2021 but proceeded on asking for an adjournment for the 12th July citing that there might be a Supreme Court hearing on the 9th July.
State Counsel, Abigail Suwu-Kaindoh, asked for a further extension of an oral hearing because she had wanted to go through the synopsis and correspondences thoroughly. She said that the appellant’s counsel is au fait with the documents because he was the one that represented the appellant at the Commissions of Inquiry.
The sitting presided over by Justice Momoh Jah-Stevens was adjourned to the 28th July 2021 pending submissions of correspondences and synopses served by both counsels. The former minister’s case was presided over by Justice Biobele Georgewill in one of the three Commissions of Inquiry set up by the present government to look at the conduct of officials in the previous APC government.
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