February 7, 2019
By Ibrahim K. Turay
Captain James Abu Robbins, who was the Intelligent Officer at the Joint Logistic Unit in 2014, has testified before Justice Momoh Jah Stevens and five Court Martial Board Members that 80 anti-aircraft cartridges were not accounted for by the accused persons in the matter.
Captain Robbins, who was subpoenaed from his official duty station in Mali at the United Nations Multimedia Dimension Integrated Stabilization Mission (UNMDISM), said some of his duties at that time were to investigate military officers and count backlog arms and ammunition.
Captain Robbins explained that on April 6th, 2018, he was called by his boss, Major M.F. Kamara, who ordered him to join a team that was headed by Brigadier Kargbo, to count the ammunition that were stored at the Presidential Lodge.
He said they went to the lodge to backload the arms and ammunition.
He further said when they arrived, Brigadier Kargbo handed over the key to Captain Kamara (first accused) to open the arms and ammunition store.
“Captain Kamara and some other officers counted the arms and ammunition but I discovered that some ammunition was not accounted for,” he said.
He said having discovered that some ammo was missing, Captain Kamara asked for a recount which was done, but the discrepancies still remained, as the receiver voucher didn’t tally with the ammunition in the store.
From the voucher, eighty rounds of 12.7 AA were not accounted for and 6 rounds of 7.62 were also not account for,” he said, adding that Brigadier Kamara later ordered them to return to the Joint Logistic Unit.
Another prosecution witness, Corporal George William, who is now attached to the Twelve Infantry Battalion in Kabala, said between 2017 and 2018, he was given the responsibility to be a riffle officer at the Presidential Lodge.
He told the court that he knew the first accused, Patrick Edwin Kamara as the commander of the JPGF then.
The witness testified that he used to give and receive arms and ammunition from personnel after the day’s work.
“There were two stores at the Presidential Lodge. The first store was manned by the third accused and the second store was under the control of the former president,” he testified.
The witness said he was serving as a guard and was also involved in the escorting of the president.
He said he was using Semi Machine Gun (SMG) during escort, stating that 14.5 A.A rounds were not among the types of ammunition they used to issue out, but only 12.7 rounds.
“I have never issued out ammunition apart from those needed for escort and for guards,” he said, adding that he was among the officers that back loaded the ammunition.
For the thirteenth prosecution witness, Corporal Samuel King, he told the court martial that he started working at the ammunition store situate at the Presidential Lodge on 23 December, 2016.
He said at that time, the second accused was the Common Quarter Master Sergeant (CQMS) for the store and that he interchanged with the third accused.
“The first accused was in charge of every item in the store, supported by the third accused.”
The witness claimed that no extra officer was permitted to have access to the store apart from those who were concern.
Meanwhile, Captain Patrick Edwin Kamara, RSLAF 18165301 Warrant Officer Class one, Samuel Conteh and RSLAF 18167256 Warrant Officer Class two, Abu Bakarr Jalloh are before the Court Martial for five counts charges.
The men are being tried by a Judge Advocate and five Board members including Lieutenant Colonel Kerifa Kamara as president of the board, Lieutenant Colonel A.B Keita, Major Victor Momoh, Major Brima Ngavuwa Sama, and Major Sallieu Kallon.
However, the prosecution has added four witnesses to the seventeen they have earlier intended to lead.