By Francis H. Murray
A 16-year old boy, who is alleged to have sneaked through security at Lungi International Airport and got onto a plane to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on 17 September 2020 made his first appearance before Magistrate Hannah Bonnie in Freetown for the start of preliminary investigations into a one count charge of trespassing on an aerodrome.
The police alleged that the accused on Monday 11th May, 2020, at the Freetown International Airport, Lungi, trespassed on the aerodrome of the airport, and went through the restricted General Manager's security gate, ignoring warning signs, and unlawfully boarded the Etihad Flight to Abu Dhabi.
Expressing curiosity over how the juvenile was able to make his way through to Abu Dhabi in the full view of the security personnel at the airport,
Magistrate Bonnie described the investigation done by the police as ‘‘inappropriate and improper’’ and therefore urged the police to do a better investigation into the matter, adding that there was more to the offence committed by the 16-year old than was before the court.
The juvenile disclosed that he didn’t know where the flight was heading to, but boarded it anyway in search of greener pastures.
“Security personnel at the Airport wanted to intercept me, but I played smart by acting busy and placed a fake call and told the security personnel that someone wanted to speak to other personnel at the Airport,” he explained. State lawyer, Ibrahim Bangura and Assistant Superintendent of police Ibrahim Mansaray are prosecuting the matter. They are yet to bring any witness to court to testify.
Magistrate Bonnie remanded the 16-year old at the juvenile remand centre in Kingtom, and adjourned the matter to the 18th September, 2020 on the request of the prosecution.
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