Principal Magistrate Hannah Bonnie has on Monday July 6, 2020, admitted Moses Kamara, Dennis Kanu, Junior W. Bangura and Idrissa Kargbo to bail after the quartet had been arraigned for allegedly stealing farm tools belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
The matter is currently being investigated at the Principal Magistrate Court on Pademba Road in Freetown.
The four are clerks at the Ministry of Agriculture whom the Police are saying, between the 1st and the 31st May 2020, at Bai Bureh Road in Freetown, entered and break into the store of the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security, and made away with 200 cutlasses, 65 shovels.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), I. S. Mansaray prosecuted the matter. Lawyers W.C. Iloba and I. A. Kamara represented the 4th accused, Idrissa Kargbo, and the 3rd accused, Junior W. Bangura respectively.
When the matter was called up in court, the prosecution did not have any witness to testify in proof of the allegations against the accused persons, and the defense counsels for the 3rd and 4th accused persons requested for their clients to be admitted to bail.
Lawyer ILoba grounded his plea for bail on behalf of the 4th accused on section 79 of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1965. He also reassured the court that if his client regains his liberty he would not run away.
Lawyer I. A. Kamara also requested for bail for the 3rd accused person. He canvassed his plea on Section 23 (1) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone.
ASP Mansaray, the prosecutor objected to the applications for bail on behalf of the third and fourth accused persons on the grounds that they have vague addresses, but her objection was overruled by Magistrate Hannah Bonnie.
Magistrate Bonnie admitted both of the accused persons to bail in the sum of Le200 million plus one surety in like sum. She instructed that the sureties must be Sierra Leoneans who are gainfully employed.
She adjourned the matter to July 20, 2020.
By Isabella Cassell
08/07/2020. ISSUE NO.: 7861