By Janet A. Sesay
The government pathologist and Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Simeon Owizz Koroma, has revealed during the court martial that Colonel Wilfred Sao Samai, John Robert Mboma and other military officers who died during the 26th November, 2023, attempted coup d’état died as result of being shot.
Dr. Simon Owizz Koroma, who testified yesterday at the court martial hearing, stated that the bullets the late military officers received from being shot was the major cause of their deaths.
Posing as the 35th witness of the state, the government pathologist was contacted by the Sierra Leone Police to perform an autopsy on the remains of the soldiers that were killed during the failed coup on 26th November, 2023.
He started by explaining the purpose of an autopsy, which is to identify the corpse, to perform the examination itself and to establish the cause of death. The cause of death, he added, includes the manner and mode of death.
In relation to the 26th November incident, Dr. Koroma said he had to perform the post mortem on the soldiers’ remains at the 34 Military Hospital in the presence of the wives of the deceased and police officers, after their bodies were conveyed to the hospital.
The witness told the court, including Judge Advocate Mark Ngegba and the Members of the Board: ‘I was able to ascertain the cause of deaths.’
Upon the completion of the autopsy, Dr Owizz said he reduced his findings into an Autopsy Report after which he presented a certificate of the cause of death to the families for proper burial of their loved ones. He later tendered same in court to form part of the prosecution’s evidence.
Meanwhile, Wilfred Sao Samai and John Mboma were two of the corpses Dr. Owizz performed an autopsy on. While reading from the Autopsy Report, the good doctor said the body of Lieutenant Colonel Samai was nourished, with no swelling on the neck, which he could not say for Mboma. He also indicated that both men were 49 years of age.
Samai’s chest, he said, had a bullet entrance of about of 2.2 centimetres and 0.2 centimetres wide, describing it as a homicidal gunshot wound that he received on the lower left chest on the 26th November, 2023.
He added that there were no pre-existing ailments in the deceased that would have led him to collapse, except for the two bullet wounds he sustained, which caused him to bleed profusely as a result of acute haemorrhagic shock.
The bleeding, he said, took place from the chest, which later led to his cause of death as well.
In relations to John Robert Mboma, the pathologist underscored that his intestines were completely ruptured as a result of the bullets. He told the court that officer Robert Mboma suffered from neurogenic shock, which led to his death.
The government’s Chief Medical Examiner went ahead giving the cause of death of other military officers, all of which he said are related to gunshots.
The matter was adjourned to today, 9th May, 2024, for continuation of the pathologist’s testimony, after he was led by state counsel Joseph A. K. Sesay for a couple of hours.