By: Mohamed Sahr
National Telecommunication and Africell awarded one hundred million Leones to the Director of Native Consortium and Research Centre as costs in favour of the matter in court. This statement was made in a press release issued from the Judiciary on Wednesday 18th January 2023.
Edmund Abu Jnr who doubled as the director of the Native Consortium and Research Centre and a plaintiff in a matter between his institution and the mobile operators which include the National Telecommunications Commission had appeared before Honourable Justice Adrian Fisher. In the course of the trial, Mr. Abu was awarded one hundred million Leones on behalf of the 300 plaintiffs he represented.
In the thick of the preliminary stage of the matter, complaints were made by both the counsels of Africell and NATCOM about Edmund’s alleged conduct in harassing them of making financial demands to settle the matter out of court. They furthered that he went on social media to publish prejudicial statements about the trial taking place in court. Order was granted by the Honourable Justice Fisher on the 26th day of February that restrained comments and publication made on the case as it was considered as ‘’sub judice.’’
Director Edmund Abu made an apparent protest to continue publishing content on traditional media as well as social media with the possibility of impugning the credibility of the judiciary and the judge presiding over the matter. The Judiciary noted that Mr. Abu made nutty and disrespectful conduct in court in the full view of right-minded people who can put the hard-earned reputation of the presiding judge into disrepute.
‘’The judiciary always acts in accordance with the laws of Sierra Leone, in particularly Section 120 (1) of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, Act No 6 of 1991, which vests judicial power on the judiciary of Sierra Leone,’’ the Judiciary of Sierra Leone stated.
The press statement revealed that the proceedings for contempt of court would be heard by Honourable Justice Fisher on 31 January 2023. Therefore, Director Edmund has been served with all significant papers for him to prepare his defence on the 10 counts charges of contempt of court.