Investigations Officer of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Hajaratu Sama, has on Wednesday 8th July 9, 2020, testified as the first prosecution witness in the examination malpractice case involving examiners at the Holy Family Secondary School, Deep Eye Water in Waterloo.
The matter, which is before the High Court Holden in Freetown and presided over by Justice F.B. Alhadi, relates to examination malpractices in which WASSCE candidates were made to write their examinations in a dwelling house, rather than the designated center set up by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) at the Holy Family Secondary School for that purpose.
The ACC on February 24, 2020, filed an indictment against Henry Kamara, Marion Follah Musu Kamara, of the Holy Family School, and Emmanuel Kobby, on a combined five (5) counts of Soliciting an Advantage, Accepting an Advantage, and Conspiracy to Commit a Corruption Offence, contrary to the Anti-Corruption Act of 2008. .
Led in evidence by ACC Prosecutor, Kadiatu Zainab Bangura, the ACC Investigations Officer said that, between October 21, 2019 and February 5, 2020, she conducted an interview of the first accused Henry Kamara, who was the Principal of the Holy Family School. According to her, this came after the Commission arrested the accused persons following information that there was an examination being conducted in a private dwelling house. She said, during the arrests, they found five answer booklets alongside A4 size papers with answers.
According to Miss Sama, there were names and identification numbers on the booklets. It was from those identification numbers she was able to retrieve the centre number, she noted. She said that she used the centre number to identify the school which had the booklets that were found in the private property, and that her first check was at the Holy Family School, which was nearby. The ACC Investigations Officer said she was able to identify that the centre number on the answer booklets were the same as that of the Holy Family School centre number. She said she also realised that the Economics paper which was being written in the private property was the same as the one in the examination centre. In order to investigate the matter further, she did a roll call and realised that the names of the candidates in the private property were absent in the examinations centre.
The case was adjourned to July 17, 2020, when the second prosecution witness will be made to testify.
By Sarah Mansaray
10/07/2020. ISSUE NO.: 7863