9th July, 2020
By Sarah Mansaray
Investigations Officer of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Hajaratu Sama, has on Wednesday 8th July 9, 2020, testified as the first prosecution witness in the examination malpractice case involving examiners at the Holy Family Secondary School, Deep Eye Water, Waterloo.
The matter, which is before the High Court Holden in Freetown and presided over by Hon. Justice F.B. Alhadi, relates to examination malpractices in which WASSCE candidates were made to write their examinations in a dwelling house, rather than the designated center set up by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) at the Holy Family Secondary School for that purpose.
The ACC, on 24th February, 2020, filed an indictment against Henry Kamara, Marion Follah Musu Kamara, of the Holy Family School, and Emmanuel Kobby of No. 355 Bai Bureh Road, Freetown, on a combined total of five (5) counts of Soliciting an Advantage, contrary to Section 39(1)(b), Accepting an Advantage, contrary to Section 39(1)(b), and Conspiracy to Commit a Corruption Offence, contrary to Section 128(1) of the Anti-Corruption Act of 2008 respectively.
Led in evidence by ACC Prosecutor, Kadiatu Zainab Bangura, the ACC Investigations Officer said that, between the 21st October, 2019 and 5th February, 2020, she conducted an interview of the first accused Henry Kamara, who was the Principal of the Holy Family School. According to her, this came after the Commission arrested the accused persons following a call, that there was an examination being conducted in a private dwelling house. She said, during the arrests, they found five answer booklets alongside A4 size papers with answers.
According to Miss Sama, there were names and identification numbers on the booklets. It was from those identification numbers she was able to retrieve the centre number, she noted. She said that she used the centre number to identify the school which had the booklets that were found in the private property, and that her first check was at the Holy Family School, which was nearby. The ACC Investigations Officer said she was able to identify that the centre number on the answer booklets were the same as that of the Holy Family School centre number. She said she also realised that the Economics paper which was being written in the private property was the same as the one in the examination centre. In order to investigate the matter further, she continued, she did a roll call and realised that the names of the candidates in the private property were absent in the examinations centre.
The case was adjourned to 17th July, 2020, when the second prosecution witness will be made to testify.