The accused who was charged with various criminal offences ranging from obtaining money by false pretences, forgery and uttering forgery, contrary to Section (6) sub section (1) of the forgery act of 1913, of the laws of Sierra Leone.
In his testimony to the court, complainant, John Aruna informed the court that he was a retired civil servant and recognized the accused in the dock, as his next door neighbor at Murray Town, in the west part of Freetown.
According to him, he recalled what exactly transpired between him and the accused person between the periods of December 2007, to December 2017. He added that something unusual happened that prompted him to institute court action against the accused.
He went further to state that he noticed the accused paying him frequent visits and during the above stated periods, he also visited him at his New England Ville office in Freetown.
At one particular occasion, the witness said the accused told him that he had a friend who wanted some architectural work to be done on his parcel of land, at around Lumley Beach area.
The witness narrated that on another occasion, the accused person called on his mobile phone and informed him that his friend had sent him an email informing him that he had lodged one million five hundred United States dollars at the Standard Chartered Bank, at Lightfoot Boston Street in Freetown.
He also testified that the accused person also attempted to hand over a note to him, which he said the accused claimed to confirm with him that the one million five hundred United State dollars had been indeed lodged at the Standard Chartered Bank, but that he rejected the note.
The complainant, said that later on the accused person told him go ahead with the architectural designs on the said piece of land, as the money was ready at that particular point in time, but that the accused told him that he should make some payment to the bank through him, before he could access the one million five hundred United State dollars, purportedly kept at the Standard Chartered Bank.
He further narrated that he made an initially payments of eleven thousand United States dollars to the accused, even though he had not started work on the said piece of land, stating that accused persons made several attempts to hand over some documents, he purported to have been certified by his office, which he said was located around the Lumley roundabout.
At this juncture, the police prosecutor 922 John Dumbuya, requested for an adjournment, so as to enable him conduct more interviews with the complainant.
Magistrate Dr. Abubakar Binneh Kamara adjourned the proceedings to 24 February 2017.
Prior to the complainant’s testimony yesterday, the court had already granted bail to the accused person in the sum of one billion leones, including one surety in like sum and surety should be a residential and property owner in the Freetown judicial district, and bail was approved by the Master and Registrar of the court.