‘My Doctor has strictly warned me to stop taking whatever I use to take,’ Maada Bundeh a driver at the Skye Bank disclosed.

He was referring to the late, Mrs. Sinnah Kai Kargbo about her confidential statement to him before her death.

The deceased further pleaded that would not tell Ikubolaje Nicol what she had told Maada.

Maada Bundeh told the court while testifying as the 3rd prosecution witness in the ongoing manslaughter trial of Ikubolaje Nicol, before Justice Momoh Jah Steven.

Mr. Ikubolaje Nicol is a former manager at the Skye Bank, and was accused of unlawfully killing Sinnah Kai Kargbo, his girlfriend and former employee of the above name Bank in Freetown.

on his evidence on the oath-taking, the witness Maada Bundeh said he knows the  accused Ikubolaje Nicol as his former boss and who was attached as a driver, and that he knows Sinnah Kai Kargbo the now deceased as girlfriend of the accused.

He recalled on Sunday 16th October 2022 that he was at his Goderich residence preparing to attend a church service when he received a mobile telephone call from his boss Nicol in the morning hours of 8am.

The accused instructed him (the witness) to meet him at Shuman hospital as Sinnah had got an attack and that they were at the hospital.

According to Maada, he said he to conceal his church service, and boarded a bike to the hospital.

On arrival, he entered the hospital where he met two nurses, a male and a female.

He inquired from them about the accused, Sinnah Kai Kargbo.

The nurses replied that the accused Ikubolaje Nicol was out and the deceased had been taken into the vehicle because the hospital did not have a mortuary.

He said he and the nurses came out and he called the accused on his cell phone; the accused responded that he was at Wilberforce at Sinnah Kai Kargbo’s mother place.

He, the witness said he informed the accused of the corpse of Sinnah which had been placed in the vehicle.

The accused told him that they had agreed with the mother of the deceased to take the remains of Sinnah Kai Kargbo to Colombia Davies mortuary home at Circular Road, and the witness should take her there.

Maada Bundeh said he took the accused vehicle’s keys from the caretaker Salifu Bangura and drove the 4Runner vehicle with registration number APV 410 to the mortuary home, driving together with the accused to the police security by the name of Mustaph who is also the caretaker Salifu.

At the funeral home, he informed the accused of their arrival, and he the witness entered the funeral parluor and the mortuary attendant came and took out the remains of Sinnah Kai Kargbo.

While at the mortuary home, the bed sheet that was wrapped on the deceased was removed and her earring was also removed.

He, the witness was asked to fill a form which he did on the instruction of the accused who gave him the full name, address and age of the deceased.

The accused further instructed the witness that he should put his name as the one that took the deceased to the mortuary.

After the mortuary process, Nicol instructed him to drop the caretaker home, and after which he met him (Bola) at Tengbeh Town to his lawyer.

At Tengbeh Town, the witness said he met the accused, his lawyers Roland Wright and Thompson, and one Pa. Alhaji.

The accused said to them that the family members of the deceased are at the mortuary home and that they should go there.

The deceased sister’s husband who is fondly called (DG) drove them to the mortuary home and on arrival at the Colombia Davies, the deceased brothers challenged that the accused saying they did not take their sister Sinnah Kai Kargbo to hospital neither did she die at the hospital.

And that the accused was telling lies. And as they went to the hospital and the nurses they met said they did not have the patient Sinnah Kai Kargbo at the hospital.

The accused and the brothers had a bitter argument at the funeral parlour and later called on the police who came and arrested Ikubolaje Nicol.

Maada went on that he had previously worked with the accused Ikubolaje Nicol at the Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) for ten years, and for three years at the Skye Bank before the alleged incident of 16th October 2022, took place.

And he had known the deceased while she was at college, and he used to visit Ikubolaje Nicol at GTB, and after college she got employed at the Skye Bank.

Under crossed examination by lead Defense Counsel Roland Wright; the witness said he used to drive the deceased on errands and that they used to talk.

He recalled that ten days before her death Sinnah Kai Kargbo confined in him that her medical doctor had warned her strictly to stop taking whatever she used to take.

The deceased, Sinnah Kai Kargbo, later sent a text to him (Maada) on the phone and asked him not to inform the accused of their conversations.

During the police investigation, the witness said the police took his mobile phone from him, and the police went through his telephone and printed out the text message he had received from the deceased.

He made statement to the police and indicated what the deceased earlier said to him in confidentiality.

The witness statement was produced by the State Prosecutor Aruna Jalloh and was read by the Court registrar.

The matter had been adjourned to the 7th May, 2024 at the insistence of the prosecution.