By Mohamed Foday Conteh
Two Police officers in the persons of Sergeant 10620 Mohamed Koroma and Constable 13926 Wilfred Koroma have both testified in a murder trial involving one Abilola Jones and Gifty Jones at High Court No. 2 in Freetown. The two are standing trial for the murder of their brother Sholade Jones.
It is on record that sometime in April 2017, in what seemed to be a family feud, at Hastings in the Western Area Rural District, the 1st accused person Abilola allegedly attacked his brother Sholade (deceased) with a stick which he allegedly used to hit him on his neck. It was on this backdrop that the first accused was held in custody at the Hastings Police Station due to issues initially related to his safety since friends of the deceased had wanted to seek mob justice.
The 1st accused was later transferred to the Kissy Police Divisional Headquarters where a statement was taken from him. In his statement, Abilola said that he did not hit the alleged victim with a stick. However, he did not deny that he and his brother were not on speaking terms. He said this was due to what he claimed was the victim’s abhorrent disregard for him and some other family members.
The 2nd accused, Gifty Jones through a statement, denied that she conspired with the 1st accused to murder her brother Sholade. She had also confirmed that she was not in good speaking terms with the alleged victim. She said his brother had had a spat with one Salamie who is her son. She further added that it was during this confrontation that the alleged victim hit her son for which he suffered a cut below his eye.
In addition, both statement indicates that they had not been seeing their brother, the alleged victim for a while since the altercation and that they only learnt that Sholade was dead few days later.
It was after that feud that the matter was convened at the Magistrate Court in Freetown. The case was brought up to the High Court after the Presiding Magistrate relying on evidences testified by Ekundayo Williams (PW1), Olu Coker (PW2) and two other Police witnesses tagged as PW3 and PW4 . The Magistrate also said that he considered the argument put forward by the defense and forwarded the matter to the High Court.
At the High Court on the 2nd June 2020, Police Constable Koroma having testified at the previous sitting was cross-examined by Defense Counsel Cecilia Tucker. During the process, the officer said that it was stated that both accused persons were not at the scene of crime. To this, lawyer Tucker confirmed that the 1st and 2nd accused persons were actually residing at Edwin Street and not St. Thomas Street, the alleged crime scene.
Sergeant Koroma told the court he was at the crime scene with some other Police Officers and that he took photos of the alleged victim. These photos were presented to the court as exhibits G1-7. The witness also said that he was present at the Connaught hospital where an autopsy was done on the corpse. He also added that he took photos of the corpse during the conduction of the autopsy. The defense did not cross examine this witness.
The matter was adjourned for the 9th June 2021 by Justice Ivan Sesay with former State pathologist, Dr. Owizz Koroma scheduled to testify.
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