The Sierra Leone Government pathologist, Dr Simeon Owizz Koroma has certified that two people killed in Koidu during an industrial strike action in December last year died of gunshot wounds.
A 14-year-old boy and a commercial motor bike rider died when police opened fire during a protest over pay and conditions at the OCTEA diamond mine in the eastern Kono district headquarter town.
Dr Owizz made this confirmation to Politico at the Resettlement Camp cemetery in Koidu after exhuming the remains of the deceased.
He pointed out that “the bullet broke the hyoid bones of the 14-year-old which passed through his neck to hit the pelvic bone of the commercial motor bike rider resulting in their instant deaths”.
The pathologist told the bereaved families that they now had “a genuine and legitimate case against the killer (s) of your beloved ones in the court of law.” He motivated them to seek legal redress and assured that they could now pursue the killers to any court in the world “and I will be with you to testify that the deaths of your people were caused by bullet wounds”.
Police detective Sergeant Aiah Samuka who is in charge of the investigation, assured the bereaved families that they would conduct fair and unbiased investigations “in exposing the killers of your relatives”.
In tears, the brother of the 14-year-old deceased, Sahr Lamin described the exhumation as a “provocation to the highest degree”. He lamented that since the killing of their relatives neither the Government nor the human rights commission had done anything to bring the killers to book. He insisted that justice in Sierra Leone was a reserve for the rich, the favoured and those in high position.
