By Aminata Phidelia Allie
A final year student of the English Department at Fourah Bay College was yesterday remanded at the Pademba Road prisons in Freetown on allegations of fraud.
Jaward Borbor Khalil, 23, stood before Magistrate Komba Kamanda of Court No.2 on ten counts of conspiracy to defraud, forgery, altering forged documents and obtaining money by false pretences.
He allegedly committed the crime against Foday Hamid Kamara, on diverse dates between October 4 and December 25 last year. The accused allegedly produced a Bachelor of Science degree certificate in business administration, a Master’s degree in business administration and a final examination result, all from Legon University in Ghana.
Also, he allegedly falsely obtained the sum of Le 1.8 million from the complainant for the purpose of securing him a job as a procurement officer at the public service commission.
A forged and altered document was tendered as a letter of invitation from the Public Service Commission of Sierra Leone, addressed to the complainant and signed by the accused.
He was denied bail and his matter adjourned to Monday January 27 for further hearing.
In the same court, 18 accused persons, in two separate files of 9 each, were also remanded in prison for loitering and frequenting places used for smoking marijuana. The accused persons, who were arrested early this year, all pleaded guilty and begged for mercy from the magistrate.
But Magistrate Kamanda refused them bail, saying that he had decided to change his strategy in dealing with such cases. He observed that a good number of youth kept committing the same crime because they believed that all the punishment they ever got was a fine.
“This is why I am no longer going to impose fines right away. Their remand will serve as a lesson for others out there who do not want to usefully employ themselves”, he said.
Both matters come up again on Thursday January 23, 2014 for the magistrate to decide on fines, release them on bail or order their continuous imprisonment for preliminary investigations.
(C) Politico 21/01/14
