The witness told the court he lives at Brusubi Phase 2. He stated that part of his functions is to enforce the environment laws. He adduced that on 2nd August 2023, they were on plastic bags enforcement, saying the enforcement exercise involves going to town to confiscate banned plastic bags.
“I headed two police officers and three Environment Inspectors, going around Serrekunda,” he stated. “When we came to a shop around Bakau Garage in Serrekunda, we conducted a search in the shop. At the time of the search the shop owner was not in the shop. We found a lot of plastic bags. We asked the person who was taking care of the shop to tell us the whereabouts of the shop owner but he refused.”
He recalled that the man they found in the shop later told them it was Mustapha who owned the shop. He added that he requested the telephone number of the owner of the shop but the man in the shop refused to give it to them. He said he asked the man to call Mustapha and tell him that they found some plastic bags in his shop, which he did. “We then gathered the plastic bags but they could not fit in the car we came with,” he told the court. “We asked for reinforcement from our office. After the loading of the plastic bags, the accused came to our office. I introduced myself to him. He admitted the offence. I told him to produce his ID card and a surety so that he could be granted bail. We estimated the plastic bags which were about 2 to 3 tons. From there he was forwarded to the prosecution unit for further actions.”
The prosecuting officer, Sergeant 4195 Baldeh, who represented the IGP, told the court that was all for the witness. He then applied for an adjournment to enable the prosecution to tender the plastic bags through the witness. The accused said he had no objection to the application made by the prosecutor to adjourn the case.
The matter was subsequently adjourned till 6 February 2025, for the tendering of the plastic bags and for the accused to test the credibility of the witness under cross-examination.
NEA official Ebrima Sillah filed the case on behalf of the agency.
