By Mathew Kanu in Makeni
While many were busy celebrating the coming of the new year last night a young man in the northern Sierra Leonean city of Makeni had a completely different plan.
25-year-old Alhaji Kamara, a resident of Patefu Masimbo some three miles outside Makeni apparently hanged himself at dawn on New Year's Day, using a nylon rope which he ostensibly tied to the ceiling of the Science Building of the St Francis Secondary School.
The police Northern Regional Crime Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police Aiah Mattia said the deceased had been identified by his uncle, Abdulai Kalokoh, and his corpse handed over to him after a postmortem. He said the cause of death was now being investigated, adding that the deceased did not leave any note behind making the reason for the apparent suicide yet unclear.
The principal of the Junior St Francis Secondary School said that he received a telephone call from the school security personnel at 04:00 am saying that someone had hanged himself. Benson Sesay said that he immediately rushed to the Makeni Rogbane Police Station where he reported the incident but chided that the police did not turn up until after 08:00 am. Police admitted that they did not respond swiftly to the report of the apparent suicide because they were overstretched in providing security across the city on New Year's Day.
Sesay stressed that the deceased had "no connections with the school and we do not know him at all". He said such had never happened in the history of the school.
However, this is not the first time a suicide has been committed in Makeni which is home of the country's president and has multinational companies mining in the region for iron ore and doing agribusiness. In the last three years it has become a common occurrence but the reasons have never been investigated or made known.
Many people have attributed the latest incident to the economic "hard times" with some also blaming it on the lack of counseling for hopeless young people. But the Programme Manager of AGAPE Counseling Center in Makeni, Reverend Pastor Margaret Sesay described the incident as "unfortunate". She said it was terrible for anyone to end their own life no matter their level of despair.
“Be very hopeful in life and always find someone to talk to and believe there is a brighter tomorrow for you" she urged. She said government should be concerned about the spate of suicide especially in Makeni and urged the empowerment of counselors and human rights organisations to respond to it.
Hundreds of onlookers gathered at the school compound in the earlier hours of the morning. An onlooker, 22-year-old Aminata Sesay told Politico that the man must have been tired of the hard times and chose to end it by ending his life.
(C) Politico Online 01/01/14
