Moses John Wilson who is the accused in the ongoing preliminary investigation matter on an alleged Aircraft theft, yesterday asked Magistrate Komba Kamanda for the Close Circuit Television (CCTV) footage at the Freetown International Airport to be tendered in court to determine whether he was the one who was seen on the night of the alleged incident.
The accused made this request when cross-examining the Prosecution Witness No.1 Aminata Angela Kamara (PW1) who is an Aviation Security Officer, supervising for the Westminister Aviation Security Agency at the Airport, as he (accused) had no legal representation, which led the Magistrate to allow him to ask questions from the witness.
Madam Kamara admitted that the Freetown International Airport has CCTV that monitors activities within the Airport premises as part of their security apparatus, and maintained that she saw the accused wearing the clothes that the police had as exhibit on the day before the incident and during the night time, as the clothes were found inside the his room.
According to the witness, the airport is manned by security guards but the fence around is not complete, as some parts are broken which gives access to intruders to enter and leave the airport unnoticed by the security guard, explaining that she saw the accused jumping from the flight in question and run towards the Fire force and the Westminster Security Agency building, but could not tell whether the accused jumped the fence or not.
The witness states that the accused was arrested by the police officers and taken to the police station based on her description of the accused, but the accused refuted that statement and maintained that he reported himself to the police.
Before adjourning the matter, Magistrate Kamanda disclosed to the accused that it is for the police to tender the footage, as they ought to have done thorough investigation on the alleged matter before charging to court, and that he (the accused) should ask some of his question to the investigator when he comes to court and adjourned the matter to Thursday 8th August 2013.
By Alhaji M. Kamara
August 2, 2013
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