Accused narrates how it all started
October 28, 2015 By Hassan Gbassay Koroma
Fatmata Tucker, who is before the High Court answering to on one count of murder, yesterday continued her testimony before Justice Alusine Sesay on how the alleged murder happened. She was alleged to have murdered her boyfriend Saidu Bangura on 6th April, 2012 at Suffizan Guest House in Lungi, Port Loko District.
While the prosecution had closed its case, the onus is now on the defence to prove the innocence of the accused.
The prosecution had alleged that on April 6, 2012 at the Suffizan Guest House, Lungi in the Port Loko District, the accused murdered her boyfriend, Saidu Bangura.
In her earlier testimony, the accused had told the court that she recognised the deceased as her boyfriend, and that they met in Kenema, Southern Sierra Leone, where the deceased had asked her to come to Freetown and continue with her education.
She said while in Freetown, she was informed that the deceased had a wife and a child. According to her, she confronted the deceased with the information, which he first denied but later admitted it to be true.
She told the court that she had encouraged the deceased to take care of the child and that they were caring for the child through one of her aunts in Kenema.
“One day the deceased informed me that he was going to Kenema to visit his child. While he was in Kenema, I got a phone call from my aunt that he had seen the deceased together with the mother of his child. But my aunt advised me to stay away from the accused, which I did. Since then we were not getting along well,” the accused narrated to the court.
According to her testimony to the police on April 6, 2012, the accused said she received a call from a strange number and that the deceased introduced himself and requested her to see him.
She said the deceased informed her that he had important information to share with her.
“But I refused going to see him and then ended the call,” she said. “He again called and told me that the information he wanted to share with me concerned ‘life and death’. On that ground, I decided to go and see him. I met him in the ferry and we both crossed over to Targrin at Lungi.
“While we were in the ferry, I asked him to tell me the massage he had for me but he refused, insisting that he would only pass on the information when we arrived at Lungi. At Lungi, he still refused to tell me what the massage was.”
At this juncture, Justice Sesay adjourned the matter to 3rd November for the accused to continue with her testimony.