In the alleged larceny matter of forty thousand litres of diesel, property of the then National Power Authority (NPA), the defence counsel, Alex Musa on Monday stated that “the prosecution is making mockery of justice.”
He made this statement while he was addressing Magistrate Binneh Kamara at the Court No.1, on the continuous absenteeism of the state prosecutor Monfred Sesay.
According to the counsel, the state prosecutor has failed to show up on three consecutive hearing noting that though the matter has been in court for over two years, the prosecution has not given sufficient proof to warrant the court to commit the matter to High Court.
The counsel applied that the accused, Mustapha Sannoh, Aiah Moseray, Mohamed Mamoud Conteh, Sheriff Koroma and Admire Browne be discharged on the grounds that the law makes provision for their freedom in the case where the prosecution fails to appear. He added that even though they are on bail, the accused need complete liberty.
“They have been out of job for two years”, he stressed.
Meanwhile, the accused are tried on four count charges which include, conspiracy to defraud contrary to law; larceny as a servant, embezzlement and obtaining goods by false pretense all contrary to the Larceny Act of 1916.
It was alleged that the accused between the 10th of May and the 19th May 2014, they being servants of the government of Sierra Leone, stole forty thousand (40,000) litres of diesel valued one hundred and eighty million Leones (le 180,000,000).
In addition to that, the accused embezzled one hundred and eighty million Leones (le, 180,000,000), which they received on behalf of the government.
Also “with intent to defraud from the national petroleum Sierra Leone limited forty thousand litres of diesel valued one hundred and eighty million Leones by falsely pretending that the NPA station at Black Hall Road in Freetown was in urgent need of fuel…”
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