By Kef Dukulay
Mr. Sallieu Koroma, working for the University of Sierra Leone (USL) as lecturer in the Accounting and Financial Services Department at Fourah Bay College (FBC) in Freetown has callously entered into a sales agreement for a matrimonial property to the detriment of the welfare of the wife and children.
Mr. Sallieu Koroma has three children with Madam Haja Adama Koroma, nee Gassama, in an Islamic wedlock. Within the lengthy period of matrimonial cohabitation, they bore children and acquired a number of properties, including a parcel of land at Rokel Village at the back of Fire Force Training Field in the Western Rural District. Prior to this acquisition, the family had built a house at Mayemi in Allen Town under which roof they were living as a nuclear family until husband’s recent callous and criminal display of disingenuity because he wants to get at the woman for reasons best known to himself.
Madam Haja Adama is a business woman whose entrepreneurial push and hard work played a great role in the development and actualization of the dreams of her husband until few years ago when Mr. Koroma decided to take the law into his own hands to covet the properties. He used a frivolous fidelity accusation to criminally convert a matrimonial property jointly owned by him and wife to deprive the woman and children of their legal rights to possession and inheritance.
To achieve his diabolic goal, Koroma became tacit in falsifying vital documents, starting with their Marriage Certificate. He manipulated the mosque to sanction a divorce certificate without court appearance, criminally indicating that both he and Madam Haja Adama have legally parted ways so as to get unfettered authority to sell matrimonial properties unknown to the wife, including the parcel of land in question at Rokel. He also deliberately altered the joint title for ownership of the land document to disadvantage the woman.
After succeeding in falsifying vital documents, Mr. Koroma’s next move was to unleash domestic violence against his wife and eventually pushed her out of their Allen Town matrimonial home.
Since she was kicked out last year, Madam Adama Koroma decided to seek refuge on the Rokel property, not knowing that her callous husband was machinating yet another plan to finally destroy the family affinity; and to further devastate her and children, Sallieu Koroma decided to sell the Rokel Village property, knowing quite well the place was serving her as an ultimate abode after the disgraceful throw-out by him.
He then instituted a court proceeding at the Pademba Road Magistrate Court to evict the woman from the said property. Verdict was passed in January this year granting leave to Mr. Koroma, though erroneously.
However, the judgment was challenged by the woman through Betts and Berewa Legal Firm and the matter brought back to court. Whilst in court, Magistrate Josephine Hinga of Ross Road Court No.3 served a Notice of ‘an interim stay of execution of the judgment dated 13th day of January 2025, and all subsequent proceedings pending the hearing and determination of this application.’
Three months after that Order, and as the matter proceeds in court, the prospective buyer of the property, one Amadu Jalloh commonly known as Papay residing at Majay Town and known for controversial and shady deals, urged the buyer to start a handing-over process, since more than half of the payment has already been made to Sallieu Koroma. To get the job done, the callous husband decided to take forceful possession of the property on which his wife and children live.
Matters came to a climax Tuesday 27th March when Sallieu Koroma gave authority to Amadu Jalloh to hire a group of hooligans to demolish structures on the land to force the woman to relinquish. To get the work properly done, the Police and Army were used as backup to the boys on the pretext of erecting a gate. There was no bailiff present, nor an authorization from the court for the eviction exercise.
On Friday, a more violent group went to finish the work and threatened to set the place ablaze if the woman continued to be recalcitrant. She has finally been driven and remains homeless.
When put to the soldiers and police regarding their role in the exercise or complicity, the soldiers who are still detailed as guards at the location told journalists that they were asked to come and protect the property, though they could not give further details. “We are in fact instructed by the father of those children to beat and push them away if they resist,” an army officer told journalists.
At the Grafton Police Headquarters, the police denied any involvement in the demolition exercise. However, one Inspector Jalloh, who stands accused of giving support to the exercise, informed that they were aware of the gate erection and provided security for Mr. Amadu Jalloh as he claimed to be the owner of the property. The Local Unit Commander also told journalists that they supported Jalloh and Koroma against the woman because she failed to produce documents of ownership. The police also claimed the lawyer of Mr. Koroma said they were not aware of any Court Order, hence the support.
Meanwhile, Sallieu Koroma has persistently refused to respond to calls from this medium for his part. As a developing story, we will bring more in the next edition, including making public falsified documents by the lecturer and the transaction between Sallieu Koroma and Amadu Jalloh
