The Executive Director of the Legal Aid Board (LAB), Mrs. Fatmata Claire Carlton-Hanciles, has reconciled a client of the scheme, Abdul Rahman Bangura, 30, and his mother, Zainab Koroma. This follows his discharge by the court on Tuesday 20th October 2020.
The usual post-discharge briefing ceremony for newly released clients took place at the LAB head office in Freetown, where Bangura was accompanied by his 11 year old daughter and relatives including his mother, sister, junior brother, mother-in-law and brother-in-law. Bangura had been rejected by his mother, Zainab Koroma, who was the complainant in the matter for which he was charged to court.
His rejection meant that Bangura had no potential home to return to following his discharge. But with the Board’s intervention both parties were reconciled, and as such Abdul Bangura was free to return home.
The LAB boss, Ms. Carlton-Hanciles, admonished Bangura to be law-abiding, show respect for his mother and other relatives, seek help for his addiction, and find something to do, even if it means volunteering to acquire skills. “I will contact our partners to see if they can be of help,” she said, and appealed to the mother to accept her son back home and help him to become independent.
Meanwhile, the mother, Zainab Koroma, said she had endured several abuses, intimidations and threats at the hands of her son she described as a drug addict that was misled by his peers, and therefore misbehaved quite a lot especially when he was hungry.
“He will come home and demand food from me and will misbehave when it is not provided,” his mother said. The mother reported the matter to the police after her son had threatened to kill her if she did not bring his daughter back home.
His daughter’s mother had taken custody of the child, for which he was angry and had blamed his mother for what had happened, which led him to give her an ultimatum to get the child back. Consequently, Ms. Zainab Koroma reported the matter to the Adelaide Street Police Station, where he spent 19 days in a cell during the investigations, resulting to the matter being charged to court in September 2018.
Bangura was remanded at the Pademba Road Correctional Centre in September 2019 until 20th October 2020 when he was discharged by Justice Komba Kamanda because the prosecution had offered no evidence in his trial despite being on remand for over two-years with forty adjournments, mostly at the behest of the prosecution.
By Mohamed Samba Kamara