Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, Sierra Leone’s former Attorney General, has discredited investigations on the assets of former President Koroma while cross examining a member of the Police Investigations team, one Dauda Kaikai who had earlier testified to Justice Thompson’s Commission on investigations on the assets of former President, Ernest Bai Koroma.
The very long cross–examination revealed a lot in terms of how the police investigators had conducted the investigations into the assets of the former President Koroma.
Mr. Kamara was able to identify that the investigations had no baseline in terms of establishing what the former President had acquired in terms of shares and properties before he became President and what he acquired before leaving office.
Joseph Kamara had grilled the witness on the shares of the President at RITCORP which according to him amounted to 308,400 amounting to over three billion Leones ,share at West African Insurance company to the tune of 415,000 also amounting to over 619 thousand dollars ,60% shares at NADECO and emoluments as former member of parliament and leader of the opposition in Parliament.
The witness indicated that they were not interested in looking at what the former President had before becoming President and noted that the former President like many others persons of interest had failed to corporate with the Commissions of Enquiry in terms of providing information on their assets.
Joseph Kamara also denied allegations by the investigators that former President Koroma had assets at Jeremiah street, Bluebell drive Gbangabnayillah ,Hill station and many more even when documents in the form of conveyances had proved that these properties belonged to various individuals.
The witness had told the commission while responding to the above assertion that apart from documentary evidence they had interviewed various people on the ownership of these assets and had even placed notices on them to get people to defend their ownership to these properties and nobody has surfaced.This according to them had made them to believe that the property belongs to former President Koroma.
Lawyers for President Koroma had drew the attention of the Commission to the two real estates provided by the former President at Femi Turner Drive Goderich and RoburehMakeni as the real estates of the former President and criticized the investigations for forming perceptions over the suspeceted ownership of certain properties to the former President even when they have documents that have proved otherwise.
Joseph Kamara concluded in making an application for the witness to provide bank statements with regards Zeelin Company and not to rely on evidence only provided by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and this was granted by the sole commissioner and was also not objected to by Lawyer Kowa on behalf of the state.
The Commissions of enquiry are currently looking at the assets of former President Koroma and all who served in his Government between November 2007 and April, 2018.