By Saio Marrah
Ibrahim Abdallah, the Second Prosecution Witness in the on-going Adams Street murder trial before Justice Adrian Fisher has told the court that he saw the first accused, Santigie Bangura, stabbing the deceased, Mohamed Umarr Karmoh Kamara in his neck with a knife.
The witness said he was at Solar Organisation, off Mountain Cut in Freetown when the deceased reported to him that the first accused and his friends had poured alcohol on him.
Led in by State Lawyer, Solomon Christian Kekurah, Bangura said he got the deceased to “cool down his temper” before buying him an energy drink. He said in the evening of the same day he met the first accused fighting another person by the name of Murray. He said as he tried to separate them he saw the deceased coming from Owen Street. He said at that point the first accused used abusive words against the mother of the deceased twice, which ignited a fight between them.
According to the witness the first accused and his friends then chased the deceased towards Adams Street and one of the six friends of the first accused trapped the deceased to the ground where first accused stabbed the deceased in the neck while another man hit him with a stone, while the fourth accused also stabbed the deceased on his chest with a knife. The witness said he watched all of this happen “from a distance because they had knives“.
According to him, he told PW3, Valentine Solomon to look over the deceased, while he (PW2) joined others to chase the accused persons but that they were unable to catch them. He said upon his return to the scene, he was told that the deceased had been taken to Connaught Hospital and that when he reached the hospital he was referred to the mortuary where the body was taken. He said the father of the deceased called out his son’s name three times, but he was motionless on the stretcher.
The third Prosecution Witness, Ibrahim Bangura told the court that on the day of the incident, he was coming from his house heading towards the scene when he saw six of the accused chasing the deceased. According to him, one of the guys tripped the deceased and forced him to the ground where he saw the six men, including the first accused Santigie Bangura, the second accused Abdul Rahman Dumbuya and fourth accused David Fortune beating up the deceased.
“I tried to stop them, but they did not listen to me and they were all holding knives. First accused stabbed him in the neck; the fourth accused stabbed him on the left side of his chest. Another man called Medo hit him with a stone,” he told the court.
He said after the accused fled the scene the deceased told him (PW3) to take him to the hospital, noting that those were the last words the deceased spoke.
He said with the help of another man he took the deceased to Connaught Hospital, but that as soon as they arrived a doctor told them that the patient was already dead and directed them to convey the body to the mortuary.
In the same evening, PW3 said he made a statement at Eastern Police Station after which police visited the crime scene, where a blood-stained knife was found.
Under cross examination by a Legal Aid Board lawyer, witness Bangura said he did not see the deceased stabbing first accused. The matter was adjourned to Tuesday 5th September.
When it resumed the Tuesday, the father of the deceased as PW4, Abdul Togo Kamara, a retired studio operator at Sierra Leone Broadcasting Cooperation (SLBC), narrated to the court how the deceased, his son, left his house at about 6 o’clock in the evening.
About 20 minutes to 8 p.m, he said four ladies approached his house wailing that his son had been stabbed to death.
The court learnt from him that he went to the scene but did not meet the deceased, but saw a pool of blood all over the ground and on the walls.
According to the PW4, he went to Connaught hospital-mortuary where he saw his son lying on a stretcher. “I called him three time but got no answer. The matter was adjourned to tomorrow Thursday 7th September.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (06/09/23)
