TRRC requests Witness to switch off mobile phone during break to avoid interference

By Adama Makasuba

The nation’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) has taken away its witness mobile phone in fear that he could be called by fellow members of the National Intelligence Agency to tamper with evidence surfacing before the commission.

Basiru Sey, 42, who had served in the former NIA, was demanded to switch off his mobile phone and surrender it to the commission until he finishes his testimony.

“May I warn the NIA officials or whosoever is out there not to call the witness. The witness is under Oath, he’s a witness of the commission, he’s here to testify – let nobody try any attempt to try to call the witness, to try to interfere with him,” TRRC lead counsel Essa Faal said minutes before they go on a break.

“If that happened the commission would take it very, very seriously and the necessary consequences would follow. Perhaps Mr Chair I would take this step and ask that the witness turn off his phone and surrender it to the commission until he finishes or until he is discharged,” he warned.