By Mustapha Sesay
A series of mysterious deaths in and around Freetown recently has sparked fears of a resurgence of murderous crime in the capital. The most recent of these, last Saturday, involved a security guard, murdered in cold blood while on duty at Bathurst Street in the city center.
The victim, Ibrahim Bah, was hastily buried under the Ebola burial protocol. No postmortem was carried out and that, say police, is a concern. A CID source hinted at the possibility of exhumation during the course of investigation.
But late Mr Bah’s case is just one in a spate of killings recently in and around Freetown which has raised concerns of insecurity in the country already struggling to contain a viral disease that has killed over 3,000 people and left exposed a grossly failed health system.
It comes as the death last week of a 20-year old woman known only as Hannah, alleged to be a victim of a gang-rape at the Lumley Beach, is still fresh on the minds of Freetown residents. The girl was said to have been raped and allegedly had sand stuffed into her mouth. Her body was discovered on the beach half naked.
Now the apparent brutal murder of Hannah has prompted a group of women’s organizations led by PowerWomen232 (PW232) to hold on Thursday a candle-light vigil and a procession along Aberdeen to the beachside where her remains were discovered.
The spokesperson for PW232 told Politico that they wanted to highlight the case of Hannah and force quick and “complete and thorough investigation” into the matter and bring her murderers to justice. Nicky Spencer-Coker said Hannah’s hands were said to have been broken before she was believed to have been dumped on the beach and covered with sand.
The Police Local Unit Commander for Congo Cross who are leading the investigations told Politico that two people were being held for questioning. Chief Superintendent of Police, Thomas Mustapha Lahai said they included the manager of Candy Bar in front of which the corpse was discovered. He said statements had been obtained from some family members of the deceased whose corpse is still at the Connaught Hospital mortuary awaiting a postmortem which he said might be done today.
He said there was as yet no concrete evidence of a gang-rape of Hannah whose father is a late former military officer, adding that from their evidence adduced so far the deceased was a commercial sex worker who started the trade at the age of 13 years. He praised the Aberdeen community for their “cooperation” so far.
Back to the issue of Ibrahim Bah, who was a black market foreign currency dealer by day and a watchman by night with Marz Chemist, a pharmacy business situated on Bathurst Street. His friends describe him as “friendly” and dismissed any possibility he could have been involved in any acts that could have endangered his life.
When his body was discovered, those who first saw the late man said they called his employers but that they failed to show up.
His girl friend who spoke to Politico, narrated how even neighbours in the vicinity treated them with indifference when they arrived at the scene.
As for the police, they learnt about the case through a newspaper report, raising questions about the proactive nature of the force and the relationship between the men and women in blue and the Ebola Burial Teams who hurriedly took the corpse to the grave without reporting the matter to the police even though it bore the hallmarks of crime.
Jennifer Thomas, who described herself as a close friend of the late man, said they were together somewhere along Siaka Stevens Street on Friday before he left for work that evening.
Thomas explained that they were informed about the death of her friend in the morning hours of Saturday and that when they got to the scene the corpse was found lying half naked in a pool of blood oozing from his eyes, nose and mouth. She recalled when Bah was going for work he was fully dressed.
She noted that there where stones around the body and one of the victim’s arms was broken which, according to her, suggested he was physically attacked.
“We did not see any of his belongings like phone, his shirt and shoes, and we did not see a stab wound on his body,” Thomas told Politico.
The grieving woman lamented that people in the neighbourhood of the crime scene were unhelpful. She said people stood in their verandas, looking out to them without providing any explanation or assistance.
She also accused the late man’s employers of being indifferent to his plight, adding that when they (proprietors of Marz Chemist) were contacted about his death they failed to show up at the scene.
The female administrative officer at Marz Chemist, a Mrs Show, declined to reveal her full name to Politico. But she admitted they were contacted and did not go to the scene in line with anti-Ebola protocols which she said forbade people from going near dead bodies.
Mrs Show spent a good part of Tuesday at the headquarters of the police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) under questioning on the matter.
“We did not go there because people are advised not to go close to a dead body so we called the 117 burial team and they went there and collected the body.”
Bah’s employers do not know anything about him despite working with him for 10 months. The admin officer said they did not know any family member of his.
(C) Politico 19/08/15
