Alhaji Buya Kamara, Santigie Kabbah, Alie Fornah, and Alhaji Mansaray were on Monday June 8, 2020, remanded by Magistrate Hannah Bonnie of Court No.1 on Pademba Road, Freetown for allegedly destroying property of Orange Sierra Leone at Faradugu, in Port Loko District.
Police claim that the four were among a group of vandals who on Friday May 1, 2020, at Faradugu, stormed a site at which Orange Mobile Company had installed their antennas and radios to enhance their telecommunications network and set fire to them.
The accused persons are charged with conspiracy, larceny, throwing missiles, and malicious damage.
Abdul Kabbah, a Supervisor of J. Jens Security Agency, the company contracted to guard Orange‘s infrastructure at the site, testified that the guards on duty at Faradugu called him from the site where Orange Mobile Company had installed their mast. Kabbah said he went to the site the next morning, and while he was there, he observed that the entrance to the site had been destroyed, with sticks and stones strewn on the ground and the antennas and the radios.
He told the court that he reported what he had seen at the Police Station at Faradugu, and the police there referred him to the Police Station at Lunsar where he later made a statement.
Another security guard, Saidu Bangura, who had been deployed at the site at the time of the attack, testified that prior to the attack on the site, Orange Mobile Company had brought two mobile telecommunications antennas and four radios there. Bangura further said that a group of youths approached him and asked after the above mentioned equipments. He said that the youths had also told him that the people of Lunsar were averse to the installation of the equipments and had vowed not to allow them to be installed at the site.
He added that Alieu Fornah, the Public Relations Officer of the youths, had told him he was going to mobilize community youths to destroy the equipments. “A few minutes later they showed up and destroyed the equipments. I ran to the Faradugu Police station and reported the matter. On my return, I saw the equipments on fire,” he said.
Police witness, Inspector Abu Bakarr Kargbo disclosed that on May 5, 2020, he received a case and enquiry file from Lunsar Police Station which contained statements from witnesses, the complainant, and accused persons. Kargbo told the Court that he and a team of police officers visited the scene of crime and observed that a wire fence had been destroyed. He added that the Police later went to the scene and arrested four accused persons.
He also added that the security guard deployed at the site had also shown him a pit in which the items had been burnt. Inspector Kargbo revealed that after he had interviewed the accused persons, he then charged them with the offences of malicious damage, conspiracy and larceny.
Magistrate Bonnie adjourned the matter to Monday June 15, 2020.
By Isabella Cassell
11/6/2020. ISSUE NO.: 7843