Ghanaian judge William Annan Atuguba has ruled that persons of interest summoned before his commission 67 are compellable to appear but can remain silent if they so desire. The judge in his opinion agreed with state counsel Lawyer Musa Mewah that persons of interest are technically witnesses of the Commission.
This ruling however seems to be at variance with a ruling given by Justice Biobele Georgewill of Commission 64 on the same issue in which he said they’re not under any force or compulsion to appear before him.
In another development former Secretary to erstwhile President Koroma, Mr. Emmanuel B. Osho Coker has denied knowing anything or even aware of the sale of government shares in the Sierra Rutile Limited in 2012. Led in evidence by state counsel Mrs. Khadija Zainab Bangura in commission 64, the former secretary to the president denied every knowledge of the sale of the government’s shares in SRL adding that not everything that went to State House passed through him.
Still on the SRL probe, state witness Mr. Sahr Lahai Jusu tendered a document at the COI that he got from Bank of Sierra Leone that hinged on the matter under probe. When asked who the Minister of Finance was at the time of the sale of the government’s shares in SRL, he replied it was Dr. Samura Kamara. At that point, Justice Biobele Georgewill asked that the proceedings be halted until the former minister Dr. Samura Kamara was served notice of hearing. The matter was adjourned to Monday June 10.
