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A Freetown High Court land dispute has taken a new turn after a plaintiff presented bank transfer receipts she claims show $10,000 in payments to a senior member of the All People’s Congress (APC) for an unfulfilled property deal.
Marie Sesay, testifying as a rebuttal witness, told the court she wired three payments totalling $10,000 to the Chase Bank account of her uncle, Dr. Richard Konteh, an APC stalwart, between March 2010 and March 2011. She said the money was for four town plots in Gloucester and fencing costs, with each plot priced at $2,000.
The testimony directly challenges Konteh’s earlier denial of receiving any payment from Sesay for the land.
Sesay produced bank slips confirming the transfers: $5,000 on March 25, 2010; $3,000 on April 19, 2010; and $2,000 on March 19, 2011, the latter designated for fencing.
She told the court she never received conveyance for all four plots. Instead, she was given a conveyance from a third party, Mohamed Kamara, covering only two plots—a document she rejected. Sesay testified that Konteh later acknowledged he had not seen the land himself and that it belonged to a friend who was selling it.
Under cross-examination, Sesay reaffirmed her claim for $8,000 for the land plus $2,000 for fencing, arguing the payments were not a gift but a commercial transaction.
The court adjourned the matter to March 27 for further hearing.
In earlier testimony on February 18, Dr. Konteh dismissed claims that he received $8,000 for a land transaction, alleging the legal action against him was rooted in blackmail.
Appearing before Justice Manuella Harding, Konteh testified that while he provided his bank details to Sesay in 2009, no payment was ever confirmed. He said he had offered to “pre-finance” the purchase of a two-town lot as a gesture of family assistance.
“She didn’t give me money,” Konteh told the court.
He testified that the dispute escalated in 2019 when Sesay wanted to acquire the remaining two plots, which he intended for a student hostel. He alleged that Sesay’s sister, Florence Turay, later arrived at the site with “police and thugs” to disrupt construction.
Konteh stated he offered a different four-town plot to settle the matter, but the offer was rejected because, he claimed, Sesay had “resorted to blackmail.”
