The accused were Muhammadou Lamin Jaiteh, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health, Balla Kandeh, programme manager of the Malaria Control Programme, and Omar Malleh Ceesay, executive director of HePDO.
The case proceeded with one Modou Gaye, a witness and a police officer under the Drug Squad who also disclosed that he served 13 years in the service.
The witness Modou Gaye disclosed to the court that he recognised all the accused through an investigation of an audit report of the National Malaria Control Agency.
He said the victims were questioned based on the audit queries and, subsequently, cautionary statements were taken and he, Modou Gaye, took the statements of all the accused.
“I obtained two cautionary statements from Balla Kandeh (1st accused) in January 2023 and April 2023,” he said, adding that the one taken in January the accused Balla Kandeh opted to write it by himself after he (the witness) read the cautionary wordings to him (the accused) in the presence of an independent witness.
In April 2023, the witness said, the 1st accused opted to write his statement, which, he added, the accused did accordingly in the presence of an independent witness.
He said further that he read the statement to the accused in a language he understood, and the accused confirmed the statement by pending his signature. The statement was also signed by an independent witness and he, Modou Gaye, also indicated his initials as the person who recorded the statements.
Asked how he obtained the statement of the second accused Omar Malleh Ceesay, the witness said he obtained several cautionary statements from him, adding that an independent witness was invited, and he read the cautionary wordings to Mr Ceesay, who he asked if he would record his statement, which he agreed to and signed, followed by the independent witness and himself the witness.
He further narrated that he obtained the cautionary statements of Momodou Lamin Jaiteh (the 3rd accused) on different dates and he opted to write it for himself in the presence of an independent witness after the cautionary wordings were read to him.
He said the 3rd accused also signed his cautionary statements, the independent witness also signed one of the cautionary statements and he the witness indicated his initials and signed the statements as well.
The witness was shown the statements of all the accused, which he confirmed. After which, DPP AM Yusuf tendered the statements in court but the defence counsel K. Jallow stated that they were not served with the statements and two of the statements were not signed by an independent witness.
She further argued that the statements were not obtained voluntarily, and sought for adjournment.
“In the interest of justice, we would want the DPP to avail us with all the copies to go through the statements that he wanted to tender,” the defence counsel requested.
Counsel K. Jallow further argued that they needed to be served with all the copies for them to proceed with the matter because they did not know the content of the documents to be tendered.
In his intervention, Justice Jaiteh said the court was not served with the copies of some of the statements. He added that it would be fair for them to have access to the documents and let the defence go through them and have a conference with the accused.
The judge therefore called for a two-hour recess for the DPP, AM Yusuf, to provide the defence with the cautionary statements of the accused.
Upon their return in court, the defence team pleaded to take an adjournment date to go through the statements.
The case was adjourned till today.
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