Francis Munu, Inspector General of Police
By Crispina Cummings
Police in Waterloo have arrested a man, said to be a member of a secret society in Sierra Leone, with bones suspected to be human parts.
Alaba Kamara, was arrested at John Street in Waterloo on 28 August allegedly in possession of a roasted hand, looking human. When his residence on the same street was raided and searched where a bag full of similar parts was also discovered in his kitchen.
Speaking to Politico, the headman of Mano Koya, Mohamed Shimra Kamara explained that he had received a call earlier from a certain Mr. Sherriff who informed him about some people displaying human parts somewhere within his area of responsibility.
He said that before left for the scene, he called up a colleague headman to alert the police. Upon their arrival, the police had already arrested Alaba Kamara but then two others were said to have escaped.
“At first we thought the suspect was a herbalist. We later found out that he was a ‘Soko man’ [a secret society member]”, said the area headman, adding that the suspected body parts looked like bones of people who had been killed, buried and dug up again.
“Alaba and his colleagues were doing these demonstrations in the open street. It is not a secret that what they were doing was to scare away people in the area”, he complained. He said the police were working together with the national herbalist association, which was also out in search of the two run-away suspects.
Some of Alaba’s neighbours were also arrested for failing to report to the police when they first suspected his activities.
Head of media at the Waterloo police division, Inspector Edward Senessie, explained that the bones, identified as exhibits, had been conveyed to the government consultant pathologist, Dr. Simeon Owizz Koroma, who would examine them to prove whether or not they were human body parts.
He said no charges had yet been proffered against the suspect because investigations were on-going.
