By Feima Sesay
The first accused in the ongoing second Phase of the Courtmartial trial, Major Patrick Abu Ordende Sesay alias PAO, has in his defense told the court that he was innocent of the mutiny, failure to suppress mutiny and desertion charges levied against him.
The accused was testifying on Tuesday January 21st , 2025.
According to him, the root cause of his trail and that of the fifth accused, Zainab Amara Suwu was because Ms. Suwu chose him over three Lieutenant Colonels and one Major General as his romantic lover.
He said he knew the second accused, Juana Kabba in 2022 when he applied for study leave at the Ministry of Defence for his law school programme.
Among so many issues he talked about, was that some times in 2023, he was invited in Guinea to represent the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) to do a presentation on borderless trade.
Having performed well in that presentation, he was asked to join the fellowship to extend such presentation to other African Countries as they share similar border crossing issues.
On that backdrop, he decided to embark on research at various border-crossing points between Sierra Leone and Guinea at places like Sanya, Mongo and others.
He also revealed that the fifth accused, Suwu who is his girlfriend was doing her Junior Command Staff Course on possession of small arms among citizens and that he wanted to assist her on that course. Therefore, he decided to do a research on border smuggling on small arms around the border area.
It was during the course he sought a medical Care for a skin disease he had on his skin at particular hospital in Madina Oula, a town in Guinea close to Sanya, a town on the Sierra Leone northern border of the Kambia District.
He said while he was in Guinea, he saw a Guinean soldier having a pistol, who he asked whether he (Guinean Soldier)normally cross over to Sierra Leone with the said pistol and his response was in the affirmative.
The accused said he went to enquire from the Guinean Soldier that if pistols are available for sale in Guinea and that the answer was positive; adding that the cost was seven million Guinean Franc, equivalent to 14 million Leones.
According to him, he did all that in a bid of assessing the possibility of weapon smuggling within the borders of the two countries.
He further informed the court that following his arrest, he was placed in solitary confinement for three days and subjected to torture by members of RSLAF forcing him to confess.
He narrated how senior officers from RSLAF and Sierra Leone Police attempted to persuade him to serve as prosecution witness in return he would be set free and accorded other lucrative benefits, but he declined. He went on to say that the same senior security commanders instructed an investigator to copy from a particular note written on a piece of paper in his(accused) and the commanders’ presence and purported it to be his own Voluntary Caution Statement.
In connection to the Calamera WhatsApp group, the accused said his number was added to the “political” WhatsApp group without his knowledge and that immediately he saw himself in the said group, he deleted himself, but he was again added later to it.
According to him, he later received a call from a foreign number threatening to harm his family if he attempted to remove himself from the said group.
He admitted to facilitating to add the number of Fifth accused into the Calamera group for her to be monitoring the activities in the said group.
He went on to talk about how his phone was hacked at a time, and that he reported the matter to Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and that Inspector Jusu at the CID told him not to send money to the blackmailer who was threatening cyber bully against him.
In connection to the jailed break and escape from prison, he told the court that in the early hours of November 26, 2023, he heard gunshots at far distance and that the shots came closer and eventually the assailants arrested him from the prison and took him away.
He said they were heading to Orogu Bridge by Jui when the assailants were confronted by government loyal forces and that it was then he escaped, crossed over to to Guinea.
He said due to his uncertainty of his safety in Guinea, he proceeded to Senegal. It was there he learnt that the fifth accused had arrived in Guinea, but was suffering so he had to return to Guinea to rescue her.
According to him, they both applied to the UN Refugee Agency in Guinea so that the Guinean government could allow to stay in Guinea as ex -military personnel from Sierra Leone who sought Asylum.
He narrated that While they were waiting for the approval from the Guinean authorities, security forces stormed their apartment and got them arrested and later repatriated to Freetown.
He said he was again placed in solitary confinement at Bengazi, Military police’s headquarters cell for about three months.
He earlier told the court that investigators went to Sanya to do crime scene investigation, but that they never went to the town in Guinea to confirm whether he was admitted to a hospital in Guinea.
And that they never asked the Guinean military commander in Madina Oula to confirm whether he was there to purchase weapon or not.
Major PAO Sesay is among other five accused persons charged on eight counts on mutiny, failure to suppress mutiny and desertion in connection to the July 2023 subversion. The matter was adjourned for cross examination.
