September 7, 2021
By: KAMAL M. BARRIE (KENEMA)
According to findings gathered by this medium on Thursday 2/9/2021, one Vandy Konneh, a resident of Kambema Village, Dama Chuefdom Kenema District left his wife Mammy around 4pm and went to the Bush to cut some sticks and to harvest some yams from his farm to sponsor his children schooling.
Hours later, Vandy Konneh couldn’t be seen until he was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds on his left chest of his body.
Speaking to the Section Chief of Dakowa Section, Dama Chiefdom Kenema District Chief Foday Kamara and the Town Chief of Kambema Village Chief Bockarie Brima both revealed that on Thursday night the deceased wife intimated them that her husband left around 4pm to get some sticks and yams from the bush but couldn’t see him.
In the morning hours the whole village and neighboring Villages like Kanga Village-home town of Finance Minister went in search of the missing man but while going in search of Vandy Konneh an unnamed woman informed them that she heard a gunshot at the top of the disputed hill the evening the deceased left home for the Bush.
Dispatching men and women in search of the missing man he was unfortunately found dead with multiple bullets wounds on his body.
Later, the paramount chief instructed the people to lodge a report to the Kenema Police division of which they did “even though the Police asked us to pay Le1,600,000 of which we couldn’t afford and that is why we want the intervention of the media”, one Chief Bockarie stated.
He further made assertion that Vandy Konneh was killed as a result of a land dispute between Gaura Chiefdom and Dama Chiefdom which the Ministry of Lands, the SLP and PROSEC have been playing delay tactics not to speedily administer justice and it has resulted to the death of a brother. “If no immediate action is taken we will leave this community. We are not safe as recently our opponent came and destroyed some of our plantations”, Chief Bockarie fumed.
Mammy, wife of the deceased who was in a hopeless state and a suckling mother with five children busted into tears saying her husband has been killed because of delay in taking action in land dispute. She further revealed that her husband left to the Bush to process some sticks and yams from the bush so that he can sell those sticks and get money to buy school materials for their children. “Who will help us now? Nobody”, a widow with five children busted into tears while asking rhetorical questions.
The Kenema District Council Chairman, Mr. Mohammed O’level Sesay traveled to the village with a team of Police Officers including the Postmortem Doctor.
According to Chairman Sesay after the postmortem the Pathologist Dr. Jimmy discovered that indeed it is a shot gun bullet that was fired on Vandy Konneh at a close range with about 21 cartridges found in his body, while no empty shell was found.
Chairman Sesay further revealed that he cannot subscribe or believed the death of Konneh to have a link in the bush palaver between Dama Chiefdom and Gaura Chiefdom but believed that there must be some other conflict that has ensued between the deceased and the perpetuator due to the close range of the shooting.
Mr. Sesay informed this medium that since the body of the deceased almost gone bad they ordered the community people to bury the Corpse of Vandy on that Saturday while investigation on the death of Vandy Konneh ongoing. He appealed to the people of Kambema Village to hold their peace as concern stakeholders will look into the issue of their boundary dispute.
Speaking to the elder brother of the deceased, he said his brother is a committed farmer and has died as a result of an alleged boundary dispute. Stakeholders from the Land Ministry in Kenema including Police Officers came to our village about a month or two ago and started the measuring of the boundary. During this boundary dispute measurement about ten of our people including the Finance Minister’s younger brother “Gadafie” were flogged by the police and locked up in cells for days in Kenema. We have been spending monies on this land dispute but there has been no justice. Our Plantations have been damaged a month ago and today my brother has been killed. Can we still wait for stakeholders to come and make a public decision on who is the rightful owner of that disputed place when we know it belongs to us? How can we be confident of a quick action on this matter when there are land disputes between Small BO and Niawa Chiefdoms unresolved?