FLASHBACK: The late Satta Binda when her body was discovered
-Citizens shower praises on Bong County’s chief Prosecutor
By Emmanuel Mafelah,mafelahemmanuel29@gmail.com
Gbarnga, Liberia- Citizens in Liberia’s central Bong County have commended the County’s chief Prosecutor, for bringing in a teams of Pathologist from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to conduct a DNA Forensic Laboratory test, in order to ascertain facts leading to the death of the late Satta Binda.
The chief Prosecutor is the County Attorney Jonathan Flomo.
Police in Bong County last year arrested two persons in connection with the gruesome killing of a 17-year-old girl, whose naked body was discovered in Gbartala, Yellequelleh district, which is 169km from Monrovia.
The incident occurred Sunday night on September 16, 2018 at the Commissioner’s Compound, where the 17-year-old Satta Benda and others had gone to attend a traditional feast.
The locals, many of them women, said the Bong County Attorney told them in a press release recently that the teams of Pathologist arrived in on May 29 2019 in Monrovia and was headed by FBI special agent Keeley Burgan to conduct the test.
Atty. Flomo said the FBI forensic Laboratory is a division within the States Federal that provides forensic analysis support services to the FBI, as well as to state and local law enforcement agencies free of charge. The lab is located at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia.
The investigations will cover a DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting) the process of determining an individual’s DNA characteristics, which are as unique as fingerprints.
According to the Bong County Chief Prosecutor, seven suspects in the case of the late Satta Binda specimen (fingerprints, Sperm etc.) was collected from the Liberian National Police Bong County Detachment and they includes; Clarence Davis, J D Kolleh, Amos Molon, Amos Sulonteh, Jerry Faisue, and Exodus Faisue and given to the Pathologist.
DNA profiling is a forensic technique in criminal investigations, comparing criminal suspects’ profiles to DNA evidence so as to assess the likelihood of their involvement in the crime. It is also used in parentage testing, to establish immigration eligibility, and in genealogical and medical research.
The victim’s lifeless body was found lying at the site where it was discovered more than 48 hours.
Gbartala is notoriously known for being the place where the Anti-Terrorist Unit/Demon (ATU) used to be trained, which is several kilometers away from Bong County’s capital, Gbarnga.
Police arrested Clarence Davis, 23, and Josephine Sulonteh, 24, on Sunday in Gbartala. They are currently the Gbarnga Central Prison.
Josephine Sulonteh, a friend of the deceased, told police that Davis had physically attacked and assaulted Binda in her presence when the three of them had left a celebration and headed home around 2:00 a.m. in Gbartala.
Sulonteh said she tried to rescue Binda but Davis rebuffed her attempts, even threatening to inflict more pain to Binda if Sulonteh continued interfering.
“The way he was beating the girl, I could not stand the tension. I left them, and I went to call other people from the place we were attending the feast,” Sulonteh said. “I did not see anyone, so I decided to just go to bed.”
While undergoing police investigations, Josephine admitted that her uncle, identified as Amos Sulonteh sent her to call Satta, promising to give her US$200, warning her not to tell anyone that Satta was with him during the night of her death.
“He (Amos Sulonteh) took Satta to his house, around the commissioner’s compound,” Josephine told the police. A source, who is thought to be Satta next door neighbor, said Satta was allegedly raped before she was killed.
Davis has denied Sulonteh claim and said he only escorted Binda around her house from the feast between 8:00-9:00 p.m. on Saturday. He denied having any other interaction with Binda or Sulonteh until the next morning when he heard of Binda’s murder.
“To the God that created me, I believe in justice. I believe in the truth. I am innocent,” Davis told reporters on Monday at the police headquarters in Gbarnga.
Angry citizens of the town set up roadblocks on Monday, demanding a speedy investigation into the teenager’s murder.
Satta was a Sixth grade student at the David Faisue Junior and Senior High School.
The Bong county, County Anthony said the FBI forensic investigation reports will be summited to his office early August of this year at which time the case (R/L vs Clarence Davis- Crime, Murder, Rape and Criminal conspiracy) will resumed and place on the November AD Term of court docket at the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga.
According to the Bong County, County Attorney this is not the first time for such killing in Bong; Angeline Kolleh, a resident of Gbarnga was killed in a similar manner in July 2017. The perpetrators were arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Moses Porkpah, the man who murdered his wife Doris Nyah, for not serving him sufficient food, was also sentenced to life imprisonment by the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga on his 53rd birthday. Attorney Flomo has at the same time cautioned citizens of the Bong county especially residents of Gbartala to remains calm maintaining that any one fund guilty will face the full weight of the law of Liberia.