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The accused are Muhammadou Lamin Jaiteh, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health, Balla Kandeh, manager of the Malaria Control Programme, and Omar Malleh Ceesay, executive director of HePDO.
The case was heard by a witness, Police Officer Modou Gaye of the Narcotics Squad, who also revealed that he had served in the squad for 13 years.
Witness Modu Gaye told the court that he identified all the accused through investigation of the audit report of the National Malaria Control Authority.
He said that the victims were questioned based on the audit enquiry and subsequently, cautionary statements were made and he, Modou Gaye, recorded the statements of all the accused.
“I obtained two warning statements from Balachand (first accused) in January and April 2023,” he said, adding that the January statement was the one that accused Balachand chose to write himself after the wording of the warning was read out to him (accused) in front of an independent witness.
The witness said that in April 2023, the first defendant chose to write his statement, adding that the defendant did so in the presence of an independent witness.
He further stated that he read the statement to the accused in a language that he could understand and the accused also acknowledged the statement by signing. The statement was also signed by an independent witness who, Modu Gaye, also indicated his initials as the person who recorded the statement.
When asked how he obtained the statement of the second accused, Omar Malleh Ceesay, the witness said that he obtained several cautionary statements from Ceesay, adding that they invited an independent witness who read out the cautionary wording to Mr. Ceesay and asked him if he wanted to record his statement, to which Mr. Ceesay agreed and signed, following which the independent witness and himself also gave their testimonies.
He further narrated that he was provided with a warning statement from Momodou Lamin Jaiteh (the third accused) on different dates and after hearing the wording of the warning, he chose to write the statement for himself in the presence of independent witnesses.
He said the third accused also signed his warning statement, the independent witness also signed one of the warning statements and the witness himself also signed and endorsed the statement.
The witnesses were shown the statements of all the accused and they confirmed them. Later, DPP AM Yusuf submitted the statements in court but defence lawyer K. Jallow said they had not received them and two of the statements did not have the signatures of the independent witnesses.
She further argued that the statements were not obtained voluntarily and asked for an adjournment.
The defence lawyer pleaded: “In the interests of justice, we would like the DPP to provide us with copies of any statements he wishes to file so that we can review them.”
Lawyer K. Jallow further argued that they needed to get all the copies to proceed with the matter as they were not aware of the contents of the documents to be filed.
In his intervention, Justice Jait said the court had not received copies of some of the statements, adding that in fairness the court should have access to the documents, allow the defence to review them and hold interviews with the accused.
The judge therefore asked DPP AM Yusuf to adjourn the court for two hours to provide the defence with the accused’s warning statement.
Back in court, the defense team requested a recess to review their statements.
The case was adjourned to today.
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