May 5, 2021
By: Francis F.M.Harding
Six accused persons has appeared before Magistrate Mark Ngegba on the 4th May, 2021 at the Pademba Road Court in Freetown in a case involving; Alfred Saquee Kamanda, Mohamed Mallan Kamara, George Yammah, Steven Okeke, Joseph Chibuze Peters and John Emmanuel Eze who are allegedly accused of Larceny by Servant and Larceny against the Laws of Sierra Leone.
The particulars of offence states that on the 24th January, 2013 to 2018 the accused persons at the First International Bank now the Vista Bank allegedly stolen from the said bank the sum of Thirty six Million Leones (Le 36,000,000/00) which was created to Account Number 102-067-404-01 with account name George Yammah being a servant or employee at the First International bank now the Vista Bank.
State Prosecutor M.N. Bittal apologized for the absent of their witness and he asked for short adjourned date. Defense counsel Elvis Kargbo said since the Magistrate has placed the accused persons on stiff bail, they have been unable to meet the bail condition and pleaded with the Magistrate to look into the bail condition. He continued that one of the conditions given by the Magistrate was for each surety to have two billion Leones and they must have been managers for two years working for a humanitarian organization and must reside in the Western area of Freetown.
Defense Lawyer appeal to the Magistrate to reduce the bail condition from five hundred million Leones to three hundred million Leones. The magistrate, however, reconsiders his previous order and reduced the bail bond from five hundred million Leones to three hundred million Leones for each accused persons. The State prosecutor for the case is M.N. Bittal, while Lawyer Elvis Kargbo for the first, second, third and fourth accused persons, and M. Kamara appears for the fifth accused person. The matter has been adjourned to the 15th May, 2021