By Septimus Senessie in Kono The parliamentary candidate of the Peoples’ Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) for Constituency 21 in Koidu City was on Saturday caught at the Guarantee Trust Bank in Koidu after allegedly withdrawing a total sum of Le 2,500,000 from the account of one Fatmata Koroma.
According to the account holder, she is in the same political party as the suspect. She said he apparently got her account number through her phone. She said she had been receiving text messages from the bank telling her that she had withdrawn money from her account but that she had not been concentrating on the text messages.
Koroma told Politico that she had received three previous text messages from the bank but thought it was a message sent by mistake. The first had indicated that she withdrew Le 1,500,000, the second was another withdrawal of Le 400,000 while the third withdrawal was Le 600,000 for which “I alerted the bank about the transaction someone had been doing in my name”.
She said the bank had launched an investigation to know who was withdrawing money from her account adding that on 10 November, the same suspect used the chairlady of PMDC to withdraw from her account the sum of Le 200,000 for which the woman was arrested by the security of the bank. She has been taken to the Tankoro police division for investigation.
The cashier of the bank, Umar Kamara confirmed to Politico that the aspiring MP had been forging the signature of Fatmata Koroma, which he said was about 95 per cent similar. He said because of the huge number of customers they do attend to on a daily basis, time was not enough to examine thoroughly the signature of the suspect. Kamara pointed out that because their bank was credible and transparent to their customers, he was asked by the management to refund the monies withdrawn from the customer’s account which he did and “on the following day, the alleged criminal was caught by the bank’s security much to my satisfaction.”
Kamara said the aspiring MP had been using the chairlady of his party for Constituency 21, Aminata Kanessie to withdraw monies from madam Koroma’s account with a withdrawal slip while pretending to be busy campaigning in the constituency. Kanessie said she did not know the account was not his.
Speaking to Politico, Jimmy denied involving in any fraudulent act at the bank, adding that the allegation was “politically motivated.” He said the allegations could not be unconnected with his political opponents who he said wanted to discourage his supporters form voting for him.
Meanwhile, the district chairman of PMDC, Sahr Kanessie has disassociated the party from the alleged action of their candidate. He said the suspect should be treated as an individual and not under the umbrella of the party.
The suspect is in police custody at the Tankoro police division helping with investigations.
