In his evidence, the third prosecution witness, Mr. Abubakarr Bangura told the court that he knows the complainant Mohamed Salieu Jalloh as his boss. He added that he also knows the accused person, Alfred Koroma in respect to the matter before the court.
The witness said he recalled sometime in December 2012 when his boss (the complainant) instructed to him to collect the sum of fifteen thousand United States Dollars from a business partner Mr. Saidu, commonly called Baba.
After collecting the said sum from Mr. Baba, the witness informed the court that he then informed the complainant who then informed him to hand over the money to the Deputy Manager Mr. During.
In the presence of the witness at Mr. During`s office, the witness said the money was counted and handed over to the accused person. He added that on another occasion, he was sent by the complainant to collect the sum of sixteen thousand United States Dollars from the above-named business partner.
Mr. Bangura added that he collected the money and on the instruction of the complainant, handed over the money to Mr. During who again counted and handed it over to the accused person.
After handing over the money to the accused, Mr. Bangura told the court that the accused person`s mobile phone rang and that based on the phone call, the accused person went out of the office on the pretext of answering the call.
He told the court that as the accused went out, he signed as witness on the receipt prepared by Mr. During and then later left the office. He went on to state that on leaving the office of Mr. During, he did not see or know whether the accused person later came after answering his phone call to sign on the receipt.
Mr. Bangura added that he was later called to the Lumley Police Station where he made a statement in respect of the total sum given to the accused. The accused person was later arrested on a Police Arrest Warrant by Detective Police Inspector B.A Munu following a report made against him by Mohamed Salieu Jalloh.
Mr. Alfred Koroma was, after investigation conducted, charged to Court on a preliminary investigation of obtaining money by false pretence, contrary to law.
The accused person sometime in December 2017 in Freetown with intent to defraud, obtained from the complainant Mohamed Salieu Jalloh the above sum by falsely pretending that he (accused) had huge amount of money in Malaysia which he (accused) wanted to transfer to Sierra Leone, knowing same to be false.
The matter comes up again on 10th April 2019.
