The witness Basiru Philot, a plumber by profession, revealed in court that one Lamin Jarju, who was the deputy programme manager at the National Malaria Control Programme, used to give him cheques for over D500,000 to withdraw at Access Bank, and Jarju would give him D20,000 for each withdrawal. He disclosed that he cashed 5 cheques on different occasions.
When he was called to the Fraud Squad at the police headquarters for interrogation, he said, the interrogators showed and asked him about the cheques he used to withdraw and what he gained from the process.
He said he told them that those cheques were given to him by Lamin Jarju and he used to get D20,000 from each withdrawal, which totalled D100,000.He told the court that the Fraud Squad told him to pay the said amount, which he said he did.
The accused are 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 the Health Promotion and Development Organisation.
They were charged with theft, forgery, economic crime, disobedience of statutory duty, official corruption, and conspiracy to commit felony.
The witness further stated that he was shown, at the Fraud Squad, some contract documents, report documents, and CVs on which he said his name was written. But he denied in court that those documents were his. He never signed nor had he written any reports or did any consultancy reports for HePDO or National Malaria Control Programme, he said.
It would be recalled that the fourth prosecution witness, Muhammed Sissoko, explained in court that between 2019 and 2020, he received cheques for D500,000 “five times” from Lamin Jarju, who would give him D20,000 whenever he cashed a cheque but the last amount he cashed, he was given D15,000.
In 2023, Muhammed Sissoko said, he was invited to the Fraud Squad where they started the investigation, and he was asked if he was the one who cashed the cheques. He said he admitted that he was the one, adding that he was told by the police to pay those amounts, which he said he did.
PW4 also said that he did not own, sign, or write any reports regarding HePDO, and he had no idea about the whole thing because he could not even write a report.
The case was adjourned until 6 May 2024.
