Forty-five years old Usman Jalloh Parteh, a Koranic teacher of 23 Lekpetieh Layout, an outskirt of Kenema, is currently in police custody at the Family Support Unit for setting alight the stomach of five-year-old Musa Barrie who stole Le500 from him.
Musa Barrie is a Class Two pupil at the Methodist Primary School in Kenema. According to Mathew Sesay, a social development worker at the ministry of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs who arrested the accused, the victim is a son of the accused brother who is currently in Guinea together with the victim’s mother Mariama Bah.
The victim has been with the accused when he was three years old and he teaches him Arabic.
Usman Jalloh Parteh told the police that he came to Sierra Leone in 1976 and had been residing at Mano Junction, about twelve miles from the district headquarter town of Kenema. He said he came to resides in Kenema five years ago and that the child had been with him two years ago.
The Koranic teacher said the child used to steal from the house and that he had been meting out punishments on him but yet he continued the bad habit.
“Recently, the child stole the Le500 from me and when I asked him he denied. So I became angry and then set fire on his stomach”, he told the police.
The accused said he had never married and did not have a child, but confessed that he regretted his act against the kid.
The police have detained him while investigations continue.
ADVERTISEMENT