By Abdul Rahman Kamara
Based on a tip-off we received via telephone call revealing that an incident is taking place, which could be newsworthy, our Editorial Team decided to promptly dispatch one of our ace investigative reporters to the scene in order to get first-hand information of what was really transpiring.
Based on his report, a youth by the name of Christian Momoh Conteh was physically lynched by a group of community residents for allegedly having a sexual affair with Hassan Sesay his gay partner who was 16 years old which happens to be the same age with Christian. According to investigatation this medium learnt that Hassan Sesay is currenlty under police custody whiles police are still on the warrant for Christian Momoh Conteh.
The incident took place at one of the houses on Kissy Road in the East End of Freetown during the evening hours of Monday 8th October 2018.
According to eyewitnesses, Christian Momoh Conteh was prosecuted by his uncle, one Abu Sesay, who raised an alarm that he caught Christian red-handed having sex with his gay partner.
Within a twinkle of an eye, a large group of crowd converged within the small compound of the house where the said incident was said to have occurred. Soon, some irate youths started to indiscriminately and seriously beat Christian with sticks, some pelting stones at him, raining all type of abusive languages on him, calling him all sort of names.
It was a very tense and emotional moment as the crowd kept increasing and some people were overheard saying “Haram, Haram” meaning “Forbidden, Forbidden, Forsaken” which was later learnt to mean condemnation by Muslims against ‘Un-Islamic’ acts or activities. Within the context of the incident, they were totally condemning the act of the alleged bi-sexual act or penetration said to have been committed by Christian.
By a stroke of luck, Christian, who was now bleeding from different parts of his body was saved by another uncle, Michael Koroma, from the clutches of his assailants. The uncle ran away with him to a safe haven. Since we were very much interested in the story we decided to make a follow-up and later understood that Uncle Michael facilitated the travelling of Christian to neighboring Guinea for safety.
From what our reporter further gathered from the family members of the said victim of the sexual penetration was that at any given time that they lay eyes on Christian he must just say his last prayer as they will leave no stone unturned but to kill him instantly.
In a country that suffered one of the worst and brutal rebel war that saw thousands of innocent Sierra Leoneans extra-judicially cold bloodedly murdered by drug-craze rebels totting guns, others having their limbs chopped off and millions of Leones worth of properties, including public infrastructure damaged, the occurrence and recurrence of mob justice or jungle justice is very commonplace.
The psyche of most of the youths who were forcefully conscripted has been attuned to insensitive killings evident in the increase of violent crimes or clashes that most times live in its wake fatalities. Most times before the Police could put such violent situations under control the harm could have already been committed.
As far as many are concerned there are only two religions in this country: Christianity and Islam. Both religions, it is argued, do frown on same sex relationships. Homosexuality, lesbianism are not tolerated. They do not have places in the Sierra Leonean society and any suspicion of a person’s involvement in sexual acts within that context could not only flare up tempers but the so called perpetrator risk losing his or her life.
For now the only plausible thing Christian and particularly his family members must do is to keep him away from ‘harms-way’ or extreme danger otherwise it will be doom, whiles police are still on the warrant for him.
