According to the Particulars of Offence, the three accused persons, on a date between Wednesday 1st August 2018 and Tuesday 28 August 2018 at the Freetown International Airport, Lungi in the Kaffu Bullum Chiefdom, Port Loko District in the northern province of the Republic of Sierra Leone conspired with other persons unknown to import a prohibited drug from Kenya to Sierra Leone.
The three accused persons are also charged with the offence of Unlawful Possession of a prohibited drug to wit: Heroin, contrary to Section (8a) of the National Drugs Control Act of 2008.
Accused persons, Sheka Massaquoi and Moses Williams allegedly aided and abetted the first accused person, Kenyan-born Chimmezie Ume Ibeh to import one point seven kilograms of Heroin into Sierra Leone.
The three accused persons were also arrested with eighty pellets of a substance suspected to be cocaine at the Freetown International Airport in the Kaffu Bullum Chiefdom, Port Loko District of the Republic of Sierra Leone.
The two Sierra Leoneans whom the State alleged to have aided and abetted Kenyan-born Chimmizie Ume Ibeh to import one point seven kilograms of Heroin from Kenya into Sierra Leone were represented by barristers A.K. Koroma, E. Fofanah and J.M. Jengo.
All accused persons were refused bail and Magistrate Santigie Bangura ordered that they be kept at the Male Correctional Centre at Pademba Road in Freetown.
The first accused person Chimmizie Ume Ibeh had no legal representation. The matter was prosecuted by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Eric Deen and the matter adjourned to Friday 14 September this year.
In a related development, Nigerian-born Isaac Chukwunoso, Inspector Donald Kandeh Zizer and Sergeant Ibrahim Bangura, both of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP), on Tuesday 11 September 2018, resurfaced before Santigie Bangura adjudicating over the Freetown Magistrate Court No.1 at Siaka Stevens Street, for importing a prohibited drug into Sierra Leone to wit: cocaine.
The State alleged that the first accused person Isaac Chukwunoso imported eighteen pellets of cocaine, weighing two hundred and seventy kilograms.
He was arrested on Monday 16 July, 2018 at Gendema, Mano River in Sorogbema Chiefdom in Pujehun District by police officers attached to the Mano River Police Station.
The second and third accused persons, Inspector Donald Kandeh Zizer and Police Sergeant Ibrahim Bangura attached to the Transnational Organized Crime Unit (TOCU) headquarter at Hastings in the outskirt of Freetown, were charged to court for aiding and abetting Nigerian-born Issac Chukwunoso to import cocaine into Sierra Leone without lawful authority.
Counsel representing Inspector Donald Kandeh Zizer and Police Sergeant Ibrahim Bangura, Teddy Koroma canvassed the presiding magistrate to admit the two accused persons to bail.
But the Police Prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Ibrahim Sheik Mansaray vehemently objected to bail, on the grounds that the three accused persons are facing very grave criminal offences, and that there is the likelihood that if bail is granted they might run away.
At this juncture, magistrate Santigie Bangura ordered that the three accused persons be remanded at the Male Correctional Centre at Pademba Road in Freetown.
The matter comes up again on Friday 14 September 2018.
