The Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court on Thursday,28th July,2011;declared that former Richmond Development Company LLC Managing Director, Naeem Adam Gire, charged with forgery and giving false information on generation capacity of the firm's plant, has no case to answer.Richmond was hired by Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (Tanesco) to produce 100MW of electricity following a prolonged drought, which adversely affected power production in 2005, but allegedly failed to generate the power.
Resident Magistrate Waliarwande Lema ruled in favour of the accused, citing insufficient evidence by the prosecution and declared that there was no "prima facie case to answer."The prosecution led by Senior State Attorney Fredrick Manyanda vowed to appeal against the magistrate's ruling."We would like to have the print out of the case proceedings and the ruling to determine whether justice has been done. We intend to appeal against the ruling of today," said State Attorney Shadrack Kimaro.
Naeem Gire was found to have no case to answer for all the five counts against him of forging a power of attorney, submitting a fake power of attorney and giving false information to government officials."For the first count of forgery, the prosecution presented three witnesses, a lawyer and a hand writing specialist. On this matter the handwriting specialist failed to show any problem with the specimen signature," Mr Lema told the court."For the second and fifth counts of presenting a fake power of attorney, there were three prosecution witnesses. The prosecution failed to produce a genuine power of attorney for comparison," Magistrate Lema told the court.
She said for the third and fourth counts of giving false information to government officials, no prosecution witness proved to the court that it was Naeem Gire who submitted any documents concerning Richmond Development Company PLC.There were nine prosecution witnesses brought before the court in the case number 215 of 2009.
It is alleged that on March 13, 2006 in Dar es Salaam, with intent to defraud, Naeem forged a power of attorney, signed by him, purportedly showing Mohamed Gire, as the Chairman of Richmond Development Company LLC of Texas, US.The power of attorney authorized Naeem to carry on business of the company in Tanzania. On March 20, 2006, knowingly and fraudulently, he allegedly uttered the document at Umeme Park Ubungo, along Morogoro Road.
On the same day at Umeme Park Ubungo, the accused gave false information to the Tanesco Tender Board on the firm's generation capacity.He allegedly claimed that Richmond was capable of generating l00MW electricity in Tanzania and intended to cause members of the board to recommend the selection of the company.
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