By Mohamed Foday Conteh
Police Sergeant (7542), Mohamed Kanu, 35, at the High Court in Freetown has pleaded guilty to the unlawful killing of one Salifu Turay (RSLAF 18167125) who was a military officer.
Kanu was said to have killed Turay on a Wednesday 18th March 2015 along Bathurst-Gloucester Road in the Western Area Rural District.
According to the court records, Kanu was said to have been in an affair with the deceased’s wife, one Jeneba. It is said that Jeneba had had a fallout with her husband and had taken residence at Kanu’s. However, it is reported that Jeneba had later returned to her husband after reconciliation but that she was in communication with the accused.
On the said day of the incident, the accused after agreeing with the said wife went as a bike man to pick up the deceased in order to drop him at his land site. Turay had confirmed the feign identity of the accused with the said wife through a phone conversation. Both the deceased and the accused then left for the said site with the deceased riding the bike. At a certain point in their journey, the accused was said to have asked the deceased to stop. The accused is said to have taken a rifle from his pocket and shot Turay in the eye.
Kanu, according to the police, is said to have left a sneaker and one of his mobile phones at the said crime scene. That later led to the implication of Kanu and was later arrested on the 29th April 2015.
It is against this backdrop that the accused through his lawyer from Legal Aid, Komba Kanu pleaded to lesser charge of manslaughter instead of murder. Lawyer Kanu said that the new line of action is based on the fact that the accused had spent considerable time on remand at the Pademba Correctional Centre. He added that the accused had also confessed to the crime during his voluntary caution statement at the police.
State Prosecutor Elizabeth T. Jalloh did not object to the application made by the defence. She later applied that the indictment be change from that of murder to that of manslaughter.
Justice Musu Damba Kamara acceded to the application made by both counsels. She later discharged the jury that had been constituted for the former crime of murder in the same matter.
The judge later adjourned the matter for conviction and sentencing of the accused to Monday 27th September 2021.
In another matter in the same court, Ibrahim ‘Okada’ Sesay also pleaded guilty to manslaughter after consulting his lawyer, Komba Kanu.
Sesay is said to have unlawfully killed one Osman Jalloh on a Wednesday 18th March 2020 at Orugu, Allen Town in Freetown.
The accused was initially charged with one count charge of murder by the State. However, State Prosecutor, Elizabeth Jalloh acceded to the guilty plea made by the accused.
Justice Kamara also agreed to the application made by both counsels and adjourned the matter for Monday 27th September 2021 for conviction and sentencing of the accused.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (08/09/21)
