One Yahaya Njie was on Tuesday sentenced to two years imprisonment by Acting Principal Magistrate Kumba Sillah-Camara of the Bundung Magistrates Court when he was found guilty of stealing.

Yahaya Njie was said to have stolen four mobile phones (two Nokia and two Samsung) at the Nawec sub-station in Manjai Kunda. However, he admitted stealing only one of the mobiles. He was therefore convicted based on this admission and given the two-year sentence. The trial over the alleged theft of three other mobile phones is still on. However, in a dramatic twist to the case, the prosecutor sought to have the charges for the theft of those mobiles withdrawn.

He explained that this was because the owners of those phones could not be contacted by the prosecuting team. They were said to have been transferred to the provinces and all efforts to contact them by phone have proven futile. However, the magistrate rejected the attempt to withdraw the charges, reiterating that this could only be done for "genuine reasons".

The case was adjourned to 12 January 2009 for the prosecution to open his case on the three other counts. Sergeant 799 Badjie represented the IGP.