By Politico staff writer
A landlady who has allegedly been the subject of repeated physical attacks has told journalists and human rights campaigners that she is living in fear for her life.
Isatu Kamara who was presented to the media in Freetown on Monday 24 May 2021 by an organisation called Journalists against Injustice in Freetown, spoke of brutal attacks on her and also on people close to her. She named one Ballay, the daughter of a Sarah Conteh a tenant who lives on her 11c Coconut Farm Blackhall Road, Kissy property that was bequeathed to her by her late father, as the main character goading thugs to attack her.
She said before her father passed away he instructed her to allow Sarah a long time tenant to live there, as long as she wants. Isatu said Sarah’s daughter Ballay joined her mother. Tension began to mount when she started noticing behaviours from Ballay that unnerved her, she claimed. Arguments heated up especially when she alleged Ballay began to challenge her over ownership of the property.
Isatu does not live on the property but resides nearby told journalists that hired thugs have repeatedly descended upon the contested property and pelting the roof with stones forcing tenants to shut their doors and cowering inside. The zinc roof of the building where the tenants live have to be changed after they were ripped open due to the velocity of the stones that she claimed, the thugs had rained on the structure.
A short video of Isatu that is on social media was played for the journalists that showed her face covered in blood narrating her ordeal during what she said was a machete and club attack on her. She told journalists of how she survived by playing dead. A male tenant who shoved her away to escape the machete blow was set upon by her assailants. The man also showed part of his back covered in plaster. Another man that Isatu said does her errand, also showed scars he claimed he got after he was attacked by thugs.
Isatu said that when she reported the matter to the Police, Ballay and some of the suspects were initially arrested but claimed that the moment the head of crime at CID Police AIG Brima Jah got involved in the matter, things took a U-turn and worse for her. She claimed the officer ordered her detention and made threats against her. She said when she was released, she filed a civil sermon at the magistrate court number 3 in Freetown but said her adversaries always taunt her when released on bail. She pleaded that the authorities help her for what she said was a case of injustice.
Members of Journalists against Injustice explained that they approached officer Jah who denied of ever knowing Isatu. When another group of journalists went to see him he reportedly told them he won’t talk to any journalist. The crime officer at Ross road Police station where the matter was being investigated when approached by journalists could only say the case was under investigations. Politico could not reach the AIG Jah for an interview.
An official of the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (HRCSL) Richard T. M’Bayo stressed the need to get the other sides, and encouraged Isatu and the other men to go to the Commission.
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