By: Foday Issa Sankoh
Family members of a resident of Goba Town Community in Mattru Jong, Bonthe District, Southern Sierra Leone, are seriously concerned about the whereabouts of Mohamed Abd Malik a key witness in a murder that occurred on 7th October, 2024.
The victim of the murder was a younger sister of the now disappeared Mohamed Abd Malik and he happens to have in possession of critical evidence retrieved from her late sister’s phone that if presented in court could see the conviction of the Paramount Chief and his accomplices.
According to sources from close relatives and friends, there was a desperate move by the Paramount Chief, his Court men in connivance with senior police officers of the Mattru Jong Police Station to get rid of the evidence from Mohamed and to ultimately exterminate him.
Mohamed Abd Malik was Secretary General of the Goba Town Community Youth Organisation and was very active in agitating for social justice in the community and Chiefdom, which had made him very popular across the board.
Mohamed was out of his hometown on a workshop in the southern regional headquarter of Bo and had returned to Mattru Jong on the 6th of October, 2024. Sources say that he went home and met this his younger sister at the verandah crying of pain, nausea and was pushing out (vomiting) and that after he had gone to greet his aging father, he returned to the sister to enquire what was wrong with her but that she appeared scared panicky and unable to talk. The father reportedly joined in to the Mohamed that they have been enquiring from her sister for the past couple of days what was wrong with her but that she has not said anything to them.
Mohamed then hurriedly took her to the main government hospital, where upon diagnosis, it was reported by the doctor that the sister was pregnant for a couple of weeks.
Stunned and flabbergasted, Mohamed returned with her sister home to explain the doctor’s finding on her sister. It was at this juncture, reports maintain, that the younger sister explained that she had been systematically raped by the Paramount Chief at her place of work-an entertainment complex that comprised of a bar, restaurant and guest rooms for rentals owned by the Paramount Chief. Reports indicate that it was Mohamed who had sought that job for his sister in order to keep her busy while awaiting her entrance result to university.
Accordingly sources revealed that inasmuch as the sister was undergoing that blatant abuse to her womanhood, she had not explained her ordeal to anyone because according to her, the Paramount Chief had threatened to kill her if she ever tells anyone about what was transpiring between them. The sister then took her phone and played all the audio messages between her and the Paramount Chief as well as text messages some of which were explicit about the sexual intercourse he, the Paramount Chief had enjoyed with the sister and also the threat of what he will do to her if she tells anyone.
Sources say it was these audio evidential revelations that forced Mohamed to go and report the matter to the police at Mattru Jong.
But according to sources, the police immediately appeared to have joined in a conspiracy with the Paramount Chief to thwart the issue completely and so, the Paramount Chief allegedly used some friends of Mohamed’s sister to lure her to going to the hospital on 7th October, 2024 for some kind of treatment not knowing that it was a plot to abort the pregnancy willfully. Mohamed’s sister however, died in the course of the said abortion operation and the hospital staff involved in the act were about to dispose of the body when Mohamed and two of his friends came to the hospital demanding to see his sister. By that time, according to sources, news was already making rounds about the possible death of the girl during abortion. Mohamed and his friends reportedly forced their way into the Operation Theatre, causing damages to some surgical instruments and equipment only to find his sister lying steel in a pool of blood. The commotion that reportedly ensued attracted youths from across Mattru Jong in what turned out to be a full-fledged demonstration resulting to an attack on the Paramount Chief’s compound and the Police Station. The police retaliated in a bid to coil down the demonstration, fire of teargas canisters and rubber bullets. Mohamed and his two friends: Abdulai Mansaray and Mustapha Sheriff, whom he was already with within the hospital complex, were summarily arrested for masterminding the demonstration along with several other youths.
But according to sources, all of those youths who were arrested were not of concern to the police and the Paramount Chief. They wanted Mohamed Abd Malik being that he was in possession of crucial evidence that could implicate the Paramount Chief and his accomplices. So, reports indicated that by nightfall, all those arrested, including the two friends of Mohamed Abd Malik, surreptitiously released, while he, (Mohamed Abd Malik) remained with the police
Family members reportedly went to the police station the ensuing morning to demand for Mohamed’s release at least on bail, but the police refused stating that he was the ring leader for the violent demonstration the previous day which had resulted in the destruction of key medical equipment and infrastructure at the hospital, the police station and the residence of the Paramount Chief.
Mohamed, family sources revealed to this medium, has never been physically seen in Mattru Jong since his arrest. Fears amongst family members and friends are that he may have been killed and his body eliminated.
The sister’s, contained all the incriminating evidence has also never been seen and the police reportedly have told family members and friends that Mohamed Abd Malik is not in their custody.
“No one has been able to confirm that assertion by the police because nobody in the entire Chiefdom has set eyes on Mohamed,” a member of the community stated.
Mohamed, therefore, is not just a suspect for the Police now he has turned out to be a victim of circumstance that has to do with the death of his own sister. The system, therefore, sees him as a threat, which has seriously compromised his fundamental rights and safety.
Giving the circumstances, there is a well-founded fear that his life has either been summarily terminated in order to safeguard the sanity and sanctity of the Paramount Chief.
If Mohamed is still alive, his current unknown status poses fear being that what happened to him since last year patterns well with the tactics of state machinated disappearances of citizens perceived to be nonconformists and there is certainty that the state will not accord him due protection under the laws.
The fact of Malik’s case is not just because he has evidence against a chieftain authority; he is now a victim of state repression and a candidate for enforced disappearance. His life and freedom are in grave danger if his found.
While the government is now classifying the demonstration over the death of Mohamed’s sister on 7th October, 2024 as a security threat, human rights organizations have since documented the repressive actions of the Police to include disproportionate responses in times of demonstrations and protests, summary executions, mass arrests, torture, and enforced disappearances.
Mohamed Abd Malik stands to face these risks if, indeed, he is alive and being found.