By Musa Paul Feika
Eighty year old Brima Mansaray, a resident of Kowama Village, Maforki Chiefdom, in Port Loko District, has testified before Magistrate Alhaji Suliaman Koroma, of the Ross Road Magistrate Court No.1, in the ongoing land grabbing matter involving one Ibrahim Turay, who allegedly grabbed a parcel of land situated at Mayenabaina Village. The property belongs to the complainant, Mamie Hajah Janneh.
Brima Mansaray continued his testimony stating that he recognized the accused as well as the complainant, and recalled a time in1966 when the complainant met him and requested to buy a parcel of land.
“Myself and the complainant met Pa Alimamy Turay, who led us to four elders of Mayenabaina Village,” he told the court.
The witness said the complainant succeeded in purchasing the land, “But I did not know the cost.” Mr. Mansaray said, since then, he had been in control of the land in question.
“One day, the complainant asked me to go and brush the land. I did same. But on getting to the piece of land, I met the accused,” he informed the court.
According to him, he enquired from the accused as to who had sold the land to him, but the accused threatened to kill him if he stepped on the land.
“For of my life, I informed the complainant about it,” the witness told the court.
Mr. Mansaray detailed the court that the complainant reported the matter to the Ross Road Police Division in Freetown, adding that himself, the complainant and a team of police officers, from the Ross Road Police Division in Freetown, visited the scene of crime. He said, upon their arrival, they met cliques who were well armed with machetes.
“The police officers arrested all of them and took them to the Ross Road Police Division, where I made a statement,” he said.
Similarly, PW2, Alusine Kabia, another resident of the same village, told the court that he recognized the accused and recalled the day in question.
Mr. Kabia said, in 1986, the complainant met his late father, Musa Kabia, and purchased a land from him. The witness said, sometimes in October, 2019, the complainant informed him that the accused had allegedly occupied the land. The witness detailed the court that himself and the complainant and a team of police officers, from Ross Road Police in Freetown, went to the land, adding that they met the accused and his gang and were arrested and brought to the Ross Road Police Division in Freetown.
“I later made a statement in respect of the matter,” he said.
According to the police charge, Ibrahim Turay, sometimes in October, 2019 at Mayenabaina Village, Maforki, in Port-Loko District, fraudulently converted certain parcel of land to his own use, which property belongs to the complainant.
The accused is on bail and the matter will come up again on the 10th December, 2020.
