By Mohamed Foday Conteh
Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) of Police and Director of Crime Services, William Fayia Sellu, has denied the alleged spate of kidnappings that keep circulating on social media.
The AIG was addressing Journalists on Thursday 28th October this year at Police Headquarters in Freetown.
He said the kidnappings reported on social media are false and that those posting such just want to paint a ‘bad picture of Sierra Leone.’
The Local Unit Commander (LUC) Goderich Division, Superintendent Edison Vandi said that two of such alleged kidnappings were reported to them.
Superintendent Vandi mentioned as false a widely shared social media video in which a commentator was alleging that a pregnant woman had been kidnapped.
The LUC said that the alleged matter was in fact a domestic violence issue between a man and his pregnant fiancée and not kidnapping.
He said that it was one Michael ‘Apache’ Kamara, a bike rider that reported a case of kidnapping to the Adonkia Police Station.
He said their investigations later proved that the suspected kidnapper was one Augustine Sahr Sheku who in reality had had a conflict with his pregnant fiancée.
Superintendent Vandi said the woman Francess Kadie Sesay, a third year university student, told them that there had been an issue between her and Sheku that could not be settled for three days. According to the Police, Sesay requested for her to be taken to her parents but he refused.She claimed Sheku resorted to rather driving around aimlessly.
Police evidence revealed that the couple had a bitter argument in the car that left the woman in tears and in the process popped her head out of the moving vehicle’s window, crying for help.
The Police said some commercial bike men reacted by hitting the vehicle which panicked Sheku who then decided to speed off.
The LUC said that the bike men chased the vehicle and even broke its windshield. The Police intervened to stop the man from being manhandled, and granted him custody for his own safety.
He maintained that Sheku was now being investigated for domestic violence rather than kidnapping.
The LUC Goderich Division also branded another alleged kidnapping incident that occurred at Lakka, Western Rural District to be false.
He said it was one Inspector Kellie who received a call that there was a certain mob that had wanted to lynch a certain male on allegations of kidnapping. He said that they met the suspect Foday Koroma, a fisherman, with a car tire around his waist and that the people had wanted to burn him alive on the said allegations.
He said that they rescued the man upon arriving at the scene and took him first to the Emergency Hospital and later the Kingtom Police Hospital for further treatment.
He said the following day at Kingtom during a statement to the Police the 40-year-old man said he is Tokeh fisherman who went to Lakka for a good catch. He said that he was helped by two boys to sell the fish he had caught at Lakka.
He said that he was mending his nets when two men came and pretended to help him but that the men took his bag that contained the sum of Le 2,700,000 and that he was about to chase one of the men with a knife but that they both ran at different directions. He said that one of the men plunged into the waters and he followed him there also.
He said that one of the thieves dived down and as soon as he submerged, he raised his hand wielding the knife in an attempt to hit him but mistakenly struck a 10 year-old boy called Hakim Conteh who was among a group of boys that were swimming. He said it was at this point that the thief shouted that he was a kidnapper.
The fisherman told the police that he named his fishing boat Tokeh Gbessay after his first daughter. The Police went to the scene of the incident and corroborated the name of a blue boat to the description given by the fisherman. The two thieves have not yet been found as they simply disappeared during the commotion
LUC Vandi said that a Tile Setter, Henry Kamara who was present at the scene told them the fisherman was indeed on the beach selling fish on the day of the incident. He also claimed to have seen the fisherman and the two men fighting on the beach and that one of the men hit him with a stick.
Commissioner of Police and Regional Commander of Freetown West, Victor Manfred Williams said that the young boy stabbed was at the hospital responding to treatment. He also disclosed that Koroma fisherman might be charged with the offence of wounding with intent under what he referred to as Transferred Malice.
Copyright © Politico Online 29/10/21
