Justice Aiah Simeon Allieu has sentenced 29-year-old Ishmail Koroma to a jail term of four and thirty-two years in prison for the offense of conspiracy and murder after a jury panel returned a verdict of guilt. The convict is therefore expected to be in prison for 32 years including time already spent in incarceration.
The jurors were unanimous on the offense of conspiracy but one out of the eleven returned a no guilt verdict on murder. On diverse dates between 1st and 8th March 2020 in Bombali conspired with other persons unknown to kill Kadiatu Yeamie Kargbo between Kamabai town and Kafalaba village in the Biriwa Chiefdom. His alleged conspirators with whom he was charged were acquitted and discharged at the magistrate court during preliminary investigations.
Justice Simeon Allieu in his summing up told the Jurors that they needed not to have been surprised to see just Ishmail in the dock for the offense of conspiracy because the law defines the act to be in diverse forms including through mere basic communication in sound mind and malice with intent.
During the course of the trial to prove her case, the Prosecution led 7 witnesses since proceedings commenced in November 2021, and tendered 13 exhibits including a kitchen knife and a piece of paper which was the forensically examined plan of agreement between the accused and three other persons among them was a man named Numneh (boyfriend of the deceased) to execute the said murder The deceased who was a trader according to court records was an aunty to the convict.
On the date of the incident, the convict who was a commercial motorbike rider picked up the deceased at her home in Kafalaba village to Kamabai and was seen by other relatives and villagers who assumed it was for the usual business trips the nephew (now convict) had collected his aunt. Court records say he had made confessional statements admitting to the police of committing the act.
In his six separate statements to the police, he said he was hired by two of his superiors Alias J. Pack and Alias Daddy in the commercial motorbike union at Kamabai and Numneh – boyfriend of the deceased to facilitate Kadiatu Kargbo for them to kill for certain body parts, and was promised to be paid ten million Leones out of the sixty million Leones Daddy and J. Pack had secured from someone for the said mission.
He told the police that after collecting Kadiatu, the trio were already waiting along the road to Kamabai from Kafalaba and on approaching them, he lied to Kadiatu that an accident had happened on a divergent road shortly through a bush where together with Numneh on a separate motorbike behind them while Alias J. Pack was riding another bike in front until they reached a certain end of the divergent road where they suddenly stopped and alias Daddy, Numneh, and alias J. Pack rushed at the woman, used her headtie to cover her mouth and eyes and instructed him (the accused) to go ahead at the junction and check if anyone was coming and make an alarm by whistling.
After the killing had been done, he said alias Daddy, Numneh, and alias J. Pack buried the corps in the bush and saw alias J. Pack carrying a black nylon bag as they approached him upon completion. The defense had however argued that there was no death certificate and postmortem to ascertain that such an act of murder had been committed and the cause.
But Justice Simeon Allieu guided them that the law makes provision for circumstantial evidence whether or not there’s an absence of such which were been referred to by Harold Momoh from the LegalAid board. Justice Aiah Simeon Allieu said the story is pathetic and that the well-organized syndicate and act that had been done cannot be reversed by anything neither the law.
