By Mabinty M. Kamara
The family of Mohamed Alvin Conteh, a police officer who reportedly drowned in a river at Matombo Village in Thonkolili District, northern Sierra Leone, is calling for an investigation into the cause of his death.
The family of the deceased believes that he was killed and they suspects the involvement of his girlfriend, who police say is in custody pending investigation.
Constable M.V. Conteh, according to reports, was assigned to the Magburaka Police Division two years ago after successfully going through the police training. He was recently reassigned to the Kissy Mess Mess Division in Freetown.
Margaret Samura, an aunt to deceased, told Politico that he had gone back to Magburaka to collect his belongs from the room he had rented while on assignment there when he met is untimely demise. She said during Constable Conteh’s visit, his girlfriend allegedly lured him into visiting her grandmother in Matombo Village, some distance away from Magburaka Town. Ms Samura said according to the girlfriend’s account, the boat they boarded for a ride to the village capsized, leading to Conteh’s drowning.
"We asked her how comes she got saved with her brother. She told us that her brother knows how to swim and that it was Mohamed [Conteh] who rescued her by putting her back into the boat," Ms Samura explained, adding that they were not pleased with the statement given by the girlfriend because the postmortem result from the pathologist, Dr. Simeon Oswiz Koroma, indicated otherwise.
According to Ms Samura, the postmortem result proved that the drowning of Conteh was dry drowning, which meant that he was killed and thrown into the river. She also said that the result further indicated that the deceased was beaten, strangulated and his spine broken.
"The postmortem result has proven that Mohamed [Conteh] was killed. The pathologist, Dr. Owiz Koroma, said that his drowning was a dry drowning. They open his lungs but no water came out. His neck was broken. His hand was broken. He [pathologist] said Mohamed bled to death. Internal bleeding killed him. It was too sad for us as a family. So we suspect that Mohamed was killed and did not drown. They killed him and sent him into the river. And we are suspecting that it's not only the girlfriend and the brother who killed him. We suspect that it’s a group of people, because it won't be easy for the two alone to do that act. We want justice to take its course because we believe that he was killed," the aunt lamented.
Politico could not verify the said postmortem result with the pathologist’s office.
Conteh’s remains have already been buried on Friday 11th, September 2020.
Few months ago, another police officer reportedly went missing in the same part of the country and he was later confirmed dead after police investigation. That case is already in court.
The Criminal Investigation Department at the Sierra Leone Police told Politico that they were investigating the matter. The officer in charge said he couldn’t speak on recorded because he didn’t have clearance to do so. But he confirmed that the girlfriend and a male relative [her cosine], who was paddling the capsized boat, were in custody in Magburaka.
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