By Mustapha Kamara Jnr
A magistrates’ Court in Freetown has remanded two accused persons, who allegedly pirated a local non-alcoholic beverage, ‘Bitter Kola energizer’ a product of Kadco Sierra Leone Company Limited.
This was the second time that the two accused had been remanded for infringement of copyright, contrary to the country’s copyright Laws.
Testifying before the court as prosecution witness 2 (PW2), Paul Gbowuru, store keeper at the company, identified exhibits of the beverage shown to him at the East End Police Station as “pirated drinks and not the original product of my company”.
“As a company we have compared both products, and we noticed that the bottles used by pirates were the company’s bottles but the finished product lacks the company’s seal “, the witness told court No.1, presided over by Magistrate Komba Kamanda.
But Defense Lawyer Kwame Gabber, during cross-examination, argued that the witness lacked the knowledge and competence to determine whether or not the brand had been pirated by the accused persons.
Detective Police constable 46, Alusine Sesay, tendered a huge quantity of used empty ‘Bitter Kola Energizer’ bottles, bottle stoppers, pots, ‘Gbamgbam’ (a local herb) and a quantity of sealed drinks.
He told the court that all the tendered exhibits were found at Black Hall Road Eastern Freetown, on January 15, when the police raided the area.
Before remanding the accused again, Magistrate Kamanda noted that the allegations against them were very serious, pointing out that thousands of Sierra Leoneans may have consumed the pirated drinks that were being produced by the accused person, who had no knowledge on how the drinks were produced.
He said hundreds of lives were now at stake as because the production of pirated drinks was not monitored by the Health ministry and other agencies responsible for the monitoring of companies operating in Sierra Leone, so as to ensure that required standards were followed in the drive to protect the lives of citizens.
The matter comes up again on February, 4.
© Politico 27/01/15
