By Mabinty M. Kamara
The anti-corruption commission has filed a second indictment against Stephen Yayah Mansaray, former Master and Registrar of the High Court of Sierra Leone.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Anti-Graft Agency Said Mr. Mansaray was charged alongside four others. They are accused of misappropriating public funds which sum up to Le 460,268,200, being funds from the Judiciary’s Master and Registrar Account domicile at the Bank of Sierra Leone. They were also charged with conspiracy to commit a corruption offence.
The other indicted people include Richie Edwin Asgil, former Principal accountant in the judiciary, who was also a signatory to the registrar account. They were alleged to have conspired on diverse dates between June and May 2018 alongside others, to sign a number of cheques which they authorized for withdrawal.
Similarly, Adele Faya, former account Clark of the judiciary was alleged to have also instructed the encashment of cheques from the same account and misappropriated these monies.
A third indicted person, Clarence Solomon Will, a legal assistant at Bah and Co., a legal law firm in Freetown was also alleged to have on various dates between 25th April 2018 and 14th March 2019 conspired with unknown persons to misappropriate public funds by illegally facilitating the encashment of funds from the judiciary’s account.
All accused persons are expected to appear at the High Court holden at Freetown on the 30th of September this year to answer to allegations filled against them.
Mr Mansaray was first arrested in March and was indicted in April alongside Faya and two other officials. Back then they were charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit a corruption offence and misappropriation of public revenue.
The initial indictment involved the sum of Le 60million (US$7000) meant for the National Revenue Authority, which the ACC said was misappropriated by the accused between the 12th and 20th March 2019. The money had been paid as fines by Lawyer Emmanuel Ekundayo Constant Shears-Moses, who was convicted by the ACC on corruption charges.
© 2019 Politico Online
