Sierra Leone police, in the provincial towns of Moyamba and Kambia in the south and north of the country respectively, are busy investigating two unexplained ritual murders. Police source states that an unidentified corpse was discovered in Gbangbatoke, lower Banta Chiefdom, Moyamba District while another corpse identified as Tara Wurie was discovered at the back of a house in Tombo Wala Village, Mambolo Chiefdom, in the Kambia District.
According to an investigating officer a resident of Tombo Wala village, Alusine Turay reported that hhe discovered the corpse at about 5am when he was heading for the village mosque for the early morning (“suba”) prayers. In the Moyamba incident, several human body parts were missing from the discovered corpse, including the tongue, heart, left breast and sexual organ.The police suspect foul play in the Kambia incident and the Local Unit Commander(LUC) Kambia District Superintendent Foday Conteh has called for a post-mortem to be conducted to identify the cause of death. The issue of ritual murder does not seem to be new in this part of the country, especially during elections. About a week ago the corpse of a 42 year old woman presumed to have been gang raped was discovered in Makeni town, north of the country close to a popular palm wine drinking bar. Alhaji Tokowa in the Kenema District in the early 1990s killed his niece, cutting off her genital and other parts for a preparation of a charm that he said would bring him good luck in his diamond mining venture.
Often during elections parents advice their children to watch their steps as politicians would be in need of human parts solely for rituals used as charm to enhance political success. Even as police are investigating these recent ugly situations, sometimes the murderers go unidentified as well as unpunished. In few cases they are caught through thorough police investigation. A senior police officer, Superintendent Lamin of Police Head quarters, has however dismissed as over exaggerated cases of these murders; emphasising that “these could happen anywhere…they might not necessarily mean ritual murders. Just mere accidents”
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