By AL MansaraY
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TV-News24) — A female attorney in Sierra Leone with US legal system affiliation alleged mid-May that head of police criminal investigations department in that country threatens to arrest and charge her with obstruction of justice.
But Chief Superintendent John Kenneth Alpha — commonly JK Alpha — denied the allegations.
Lawyer Wara Suzanne Serry-Kamal says she was at the CID with her client — Isata Saccoh — when Chief Supt. Alpha made the threats after she tries to intervene as he was intimidating the client.
“He wouldn’t deny it, I don’t think. You can talk to him,” lawyer Serry-Kamal says recently in a phone interview.
Countering, though, Chief Supt. Alpha controverted the claims and says lawyer Serry-Kamal was not telling the truth.
“Ah…not to my knowledge, please. That’s false. It’s not to my knowledge. She is lying. How can I do that?” Chief Supt. Kenneth says recently over the phone.
Lawyer Serry-Kamal says furtherance to the alleged threat at CID, she in fact had a conversation with Chief Supt. Alpha regarding the incident.
“Actually, I’ve already had a confrontation with him about it. So, I’m…I’m satisfied that it won’t occur again,” she says during the phone interview.
Again, Chief Supt. Alpha denies such a meeting ever occurred, and reiterates his denial of the alleged incident.
“No, No, No. None of the above. I’m really surprise. I’m surprise, my brother. It’s a surprise to me,” Chief Supt. Kenneth says.
The back and forth between these two very important persons in society — whose roles are integral in the fight against human rights abuses and thus, upholding of the rule of law — remains hearsay since lawyer Serry-Kamal did not provide any direct evidence to substantiate her allegations.
However, award-winning justice and crime reporter Jane Mansaray of Global Times newspaper in Freetown — who says she did not hear of the incident -hints lawyer Serry-Kamal is a person of integrity.
“When it comes to doing the right thing, she will challenge anyone. I‘ve witnessed her arguments in several cases. I know what she can do. But for this allegation, I cannot say ‘Wara is lying’, I cannot say that,” Mansaray says.
She says from covering the courts, to her professional observation of lawyer Serry-Kamal, she doubts such a story could be false.
“But, there must be some amount of truth…because the Wara we’re talking about, I don’t think Wara can just stoop so low to make an allegation to an officer, or to say something that did not happened. I don’t believe in that. Something must have happened before Wara made that allegation…that I know,” Mansaray says.
Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI) CEO Abdul Fatoma was a panelist on Leh De People Tok on May 23 when lawyer Serry-Kamal made the allegations — at the 54:33 mark of the embed video above.
He says he did not follow the incident but will not be surprised with the CID head’s denial.
“I have seen members of parliament who will discuss issues… but vehemently deny it in public that they never share those issues. I’ve seen that happened with ministers, police officers, you know,” Fatoma says.
“So, I couldn’t say that was the case of Wara and the CID. But, you know, I have issue for challenge of trust in this country,” he concluded.
