By Kemo Cham
A lot of heroic actions take place out there in society but most of them go unnoticed, partly because the heroes and heroines are not lucky to get the public attention.
Last week one happened right in front of me. In fact I was involved, except that I wasn't the hero, far from it. Female OSD officer Constable Isatu Lamrana Jalloh was, and this write-up is about her and how she helped take two "bad" people off the streets of Freetown.
We boarded the same Poda Poda [commercial transport van] from Jui. I was heading for town, while she was headed for Brima Lane.
As we rode close to Shell, she asked the driver to pull over at the Police Station. She wanted to call for police help to arrest two men sitting next to her. She then turned to the rest of us in the vehicle, requesting for help to secure the suspects while she fetched the police.
Constable Jalloh and the men were sitting on the passenger seat directly behind the driver. I was seated two rows behind them.
“I am a police officer. I suspect that these two men are criminals, they have in their possession phones I don’t think belong to them,” she said.
“Do you have some ID to show,” I asked. She took out her ID card. From a distance I could tell that it was a face on a police uniform. That was enough for me.
“We must help her,” I said, urging the driver and the rest of the passengers to ensure that the vehicle stopped at the Shell Police Station and that the suspects were prevented from leaving the vehicle.
Constable Jalloh wasted no time to alight the vehicle and headed straight for the police station when the vehicle stopped. One of the suspects attempted to force his way out and, between me and some of the other mainly male passengers, we struggled for about a minute to restrain him.
Eventually Constable Jalloh came back with two police officers who escorted the men to the station.
This was Friday July 10th.
Constable Jalloh used her authority to draft us all in to doing a useful civic duty.
On Tuesday, July 14th, I decided to visit the police station. I wanted to know how the investigation panned out. Were they innocent or not?
Clearly the failed attempt by one of them as we briefly waited for the police was indicative of some “skeleton in the cupboard.” And that, for me, was enough to report about what I feel is a heroic act by a female member of a force that hasn’t enjoyed positive publicity for a long time.
Let’s face it, despite their sacrificial work, the Sierra Leone Police have had largely bad press, but also much of it is their making.
In my view, Constable Jalloh proved wrong the widely held negative perception about the police.
Constable Jalloh, who lives in Calaba Town, is just about three years old in the force. Recently she has been stationed at the Hanga Police Post in Jui. She said her husband is a retired police officer, and it’s from him that she learnt her detective skills before developing them when she joined the force herself in 2017.
But it seems Jalloh’s flare for fighting crime stemmed from her experience while she worked at K-Step in Calaba Town. She witnessed and heard of many reports of people tricked into parting with their hard earned money and valuables, she said.
She cited a particular case involving an elderly woman who lost Le2.5million at one point to “the boys" at Wash Car, Old Road, Wellington, in the same circumstances these men allegedly duped their victim. Someone had asked to borrow the old woman's phone, pretending to want to make a call. The story ended with the woman losing her money and some other valuables.
“That report is still in our diary at K-Step. We always wanted to catch those responsible for that act,” said Jalloh.
"A lot of people have lost their valuables to these bad people," she added.
At the police station, I was directed to a young officer. Detective Inspector Abubakarr Paul Kamara, Crime Minor, Shell Police Post, Kissy, New Road, was on the phone. He was trying frantically to convince the person at the other end of the line that a particular case was under investigation and that he couldn’t let go of two phones in his possession as evidence.
It turned out that it was the same matter I was there to investigate.
The men - Augustine Mansaray and Mohamed Kamara, both of whom live in Old Wharf, Wellington, according to the police, had confessed of engaging in criminal activities.
According to Detective Kamara, two phones were found on them, both of which they admitted were acquired by false pretense. He said they were on the verge of completing the process of charging them for "Larceny by trick."
“I have been receiving many calls about this case. But we are investigating it and we are going to charge it to court,” he said.
It also turned out that I was a welcome visitor. The police requested that I made a statement as an additional witness, which I did, happily.
When the suspects arrived at the station, Detective Kamara explained, he ordered that the phones were switched on. Immediately, he said, calls came in. The owners were enquiring about their phones.
It turned out that the two phones belonged two young girls. They were at the station when I arrived. One of them had borrowed her elder sister, from whom the suspects allegedly took the phone.
According to Detective Kamara, one of the men described himself as a sorcerer, while the other one admitted serving as his assistant. The assistant, Kamara went on, also admitted plying his trade (theft) in commercial vehicles, where they snatch valuables from unsuspecting passengers.
Detective Kamara said the men duped their last two victims by pretending to be working some miracle for them. The girls were reportedly given beads and told to incant a supposedly Quranic verse, and were asked to let go of their phones because the hand-held devises could compromise the spiritual nature of the process.
Somehow the suspects managed to elude their victims.
They later showed up at the junction of PMB, Wash Car by Old Wharf. Constable Jalloh recalled seeing them arrive on an Okada (commercial motor bike).
“They came in a rush and boarded the Poda Poda in a hurry,” she said.
Moments later, she saw one of them took out a phone and was struggling with it. He made about three attempts with different passwords and the phone didn’t open, she said.
At that point, Constable Jalloh said she felt suspicious.
“I thought that someone cannot possibly have a phone and doesn’t know how to open it. Secondly, the way they boarded the vehicle made me feel like they were bad boys. And with their facial expression, they looked like bad boys,” she said.
“The same junction they came from leads from the same place where the old woman had mentioned in her report at K-Step. And we have received a lot of complaints from that axis about theft and other criminalities,” she added.
The man seated closest to Constable Jalloh in the vehicle suddenly realized that he was been watched, and so he immediately shut the phone. And then the second suspect, apparently unaware of what was going on, took out his own phone, a lady’s phone. His colleague quickly gestured for him to keep it.
Jalloh said she debated the idea of reporting the men in her mind for some time. She said she concluded that if she let them go, it would be a matter of time before they get hold of another victim.
At this point the Poda Poda was approaching her destination. She decided to stay on, to pursue the matter.
“I did it out of experience because I have been learning from my husband. I know how he deals with criminals,” she said about her detective skills.
Detective Kamara, who is in charge of the investigation, said the action by Constable Jalloh constituted a major gain in their fight against crime in an area replete with criminals.
“Based on what we have there is sufficient evidence to charge them,” he said, noting that they have also learnt from the investigation that the men were involved in a syndicate.
“We are planning to visit their homes and search them for any additional evidence,” he added.
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