By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Police are investigating a suspected murder involving a woman allegedly beaten to death by her husband.
Santigie Koroma is accused of beaten 46-year old Abibatu Sesay, leading to her death. Family members of the deceased say the incident which happened last week Tuesday, March 17, has left them devastated.
Politico understands that the suspect, who is said to be an officer with the Sierra Leone Fire Force, has been in police custody since the incident happened in Loko Town, Wellington, in the east end of Freetown.
Nana Sesay, a sister of the deceased, explained that it took Koroma more than three hours to inform the family about their sister’s death.
“This happened around 3pm and he only informed us after 6pm. Neighbors in the area said they were fighting when the incident occurred. And when she died, we heard that they advised him to take the corpse to the hospital and pretend it happened there,” she said.
“We have gone to the area and almost everyone there is saying they didn’t see anything,” Nana added.
The postmortem on Abibatu’s remains was done on Thursday. The Coroner, Dr Owiz Koroma, couldn’t comment on its specifics when contacted by Politico, citing the chance of undermining ongoing investigation.
But family members told Politico that the postmortem showed that Abibatu had broken ribs, which caved in and probably punctured some of her sensitive organs. They said this was supported by the fact that the results also showed signs of internal bleeding.
The deceased was buried on Friday.
The late woman and shared their house with the family of her husband.
Aruna Sesay, a brother to the deceased, said they had long suspected that the suspect was abusing their sister.
“They are used to having conflicts, but sometimes even when it got so bad, she wouldn’t tell us as a family,” Aruna said.
Another brother of the victim, Amidu Sesay, said they were frustrated about the pace of the investigation.
“I called the officer in charge yesterday and he told me they had their procedures. We just want the law to take its course. The man should suffer for what he did. The husband didn’t consider for once that he had kids with our sister,” Amidu told Politico on Monday. He added that his own investigation revealed that Koroma’s father was even present during the incident that led to their sister’s death.
Abibatu’s family is also concerned that the case has not been sent to the Criminal Investigations Department which is normally charged with the responsibility of investigating murder cases.
Abibatu is survived by three children who are between the ages of 16 and 11.
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