By Saio Marrah
Magistrate Mark Ngegba in Freetown has concluded a preliminary investigation into the alleged murder of an FBC lecturer, Kabba Santigie Bangura, and committed the matter for trial in the High Court.
Before the magistrate delivered the ruling, Detective Sergeant Issa Kamara from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters, tendered clothes, believed to belong to the deceased, found in the house of the accused who is a herbalist.
Led in by Police Prosecutor, Inspector Tamba A.P. Sellu, the exhibit clerk tendered a colored shirt and a blue-black colored pair of trousers. He told the court that his job is to collect and keep exhibits given to him and tender them in court when required.
During cross-examination by the 34-year-old accused person, who does not have a lawyer, the exhibit clerk told the court that he only identified the accused when he was brought to court and that he never knew the accused at the CID before.
The body of the deceased was discovered in what is described as the shrine of the accused on 16th April 2023 after he was declared missing on 6th March.
The University of Sierra Leone, his employers, had expressed dismay over the gruesome discovery of the remains of the slain lecturer, who served the Department of Geology.
The president of the Academic Staff Association (ASA) Ambrose Rogers said in an interview with Politico that as lecturers, they were worried about their safety on campus, recalling the “tragic killing of another lecturer, Arthur Edgar Smith, formerly at Language Department on 14 March 2021”.
According to Police, Smith was found dead with his hands and legs tied, and his face covered inside the lower faculty flats on the FBC campus.
Copyright (2023) Politico (25/08/23)
