By Saio Marrah
A prosecution witness has testified at the Ross Road Magistrate’s court that one of the accused persons in an on-going robbery with aggravation and arson case that the third accused, Alpha Sesay, ordered his colleagues to stab and kill him.
Santigie Bangura, a caretaker at the property in question said on the 26th of January this year at about 1 p.m., he was sleeping in one of the six apartments of a farm in Kerry town when the five accused persons together with others unknown to him hit the door.
Led in evidence by A.Y. Omolisk, the witness, told Magistrate Sahr Kekura that all the accused persons entered the building, took him outside, and started beating him up.
He said the second accused, Abubakar Bangura, a resident of 4 Upper Easton Street in Eastern Freetown, and the third accused tied him up and asked two others to guard him.
According to him the second accused stole the solar charger, while the others stole other properties including his bag that contained one million, three hundred Old Leones, six tarpaulins, and two mattresses.
The witness said he saw the accused with a liquid substance going inside the building and later saw a fire blazing in the building that contained four other mattresses and six drums.
Bangura noted that the fourth accused, a commercial bike rider from Monkey Bush in Waterloo identified as Mohamed Bangura, ordered his colleagues to burn the building. He said he later reported the matter to the Waterloo Police Station.
During cross-examination by lawyer Mohamed Sannoh, the witness said he had been the caretaker at the farm since 2022 and that he had no idea who owned the property, and that he wasn’t aware of a High Court injunction on people living on the property.
The third accused and four others including Mohamed Fahnbulleh of 34 Bai Bureh Road and a Petty Trader, Morlai Alhaji Mansaray, are facing two counts of Robbery with aggravation and arson. The total cost of the properties is said to be ninety-five thousand new Leones (Nle 95,000), property of one Ayodele Johnson.
The case resumes on the 29th of August 2023.
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