Several people especially those in the medical field were surprised in early September this year when reports leaked out that the country’s only Government Chief Forensic Pathologist Dr. Owizz Koroma is to contest the Safroko Limba Chiefdom Bombali District Chieftaincy.
Dr. Koroma is a Specialist Pathologist, Ministry of Health and Sanitation (contract appointment), Honorary Forensic Pathologist-UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, Consulting Pathologist –UNAMSIL/UNIOSIL.
He is also a part time lecturer in general Pathology, Chemical Pathology and Histopathology at the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, University of Sierra Leone, Manager/National Laboratory and Mortuary Services and head of Department of Histopathology, COMAHS.
When Dr. Orwizz Koroma was approached he said coolly: “It is true. I am presently a Chiefdom Councilor and I belong to the Koroma Ruling House of Makoreh village, Safroko Limba Chiefdom, Bombali District. My candidacy is a right I inherited from my forefathers.”
He disclosed that he had been making some modest contributions towards the improvement of the welfare of the people in his chiefdom. “I have also participated in developmental areas such as health education, road network and agricultural programmes to promote the image of the chiefdom” he said.
Dr. Koroma had received letters of thanks and appreciation from the then Acting Registrar of the Special Court for Sierra Leone Herman von Hebel for his “kind co-operation in the legal and practical operations” conducted in Dakar and Freetown and his autopsy report on Hinga Norman.
The Special Court of Sierra Leone also expressed its thanks and appreciation to him “for
The post-mortem and autopsy examination on the dead body of Special Court indictee Samuel Bockarie and that of Foday Sankoh who died after a prolonged illness.
He was also Consultant Hematologist and Unit Head of the Division of Hematology and Blood Transfusion of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Banjul, the Gambia and also a part-time lecturer to teach a course in functional human anatomy for B.Sc., Public Health students. He also successfully taught a course in physiopathology and microbiology of the eye in the ophthalmic Diploma programme offered by the same Gambian faculty.
Dr. Koroma has signed an annual contract dated 5th October, 2009 with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
By Patrick Sogie-Thomas