By Abass Jalloh
The Head of Licensing of Firearms at the Sierra Leone National Commission for Small Arms, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Yeanoh Esther Koroma has confirmed that the shotgun which was allegedly found in the house of Joseph Sheku Jalloh (the first accused) during a search warrant by the Police was not registered or licensed at the commission.
The officer was the tenth prosecuting witness who testified on Monday 3rd October at the Pademba Road Court No. 1 in Freetown in the ongoing trial involving seven accused persons charged for various public order offences in the Sambaia Bendugu parliamentary bye-election in Tonkolili district in June this year.
As the head of the firearm department responsible for licensing and registering new applicants for a period of two years, Koroma confirmed to the court that the gun did not bear the ECOWAS symbol when it was given to her as an exhibit and was not registered in the commission’s database.
A weapon registered will be marked with an ECOWAS logo and SL/CID, followed by the weapon's serial number and the commission's counter-number, and the year it was marked, before that weapon will be handed over, the witness told the court.
In the previous hearing, following the testimony and cross-examination of the ninth prosecuting witness - a Forensic Fire Arms Expert from the Scientific Search Support Unit at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Freetown, Detective Police Inspector Joseph Abu Bakarr Sanu, the lead defense lawyer, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, made an application pursuant to the constitutional reference that they would wish the witness to be present and be further cross-examined when they would be bringing their own defense witness from the commission.
However, Magistrate Mark Ngegba denied the said application, noting that there is a rule to have a prosecuting witness be called back for the second time after cross-examination.
Following the end of the testimony, the defense team requested the cross-examination be deferred to another date since their lead counsels for the matter were not present at the hearing.
The accused persons are Joseph Sheku Jalloh, Saio Jalloh, Kulio Jalloh, Lansana Daramy, Abdulai Kamara, Ibrahim Kamara, and Michael Kamara alias “Trayman”.
The defense further applied for bail for the accused persons by relying on their previous applications, but the magistrate refused them bail and adjourned the matter to the 10th of October 2022.
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