By Tokpa Tarnue-tarnue82@gmail.com
Voinjama- A 35-year-old man, Smithwou Ballah, who beheaded a young woman in Liberia’s northwestern Lofa County last June has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the 10th Judicial Circuit Court.
Mr. Ballah also got a five-year prison time for criminal attempt to commit murder in another case against him.
His sentencing follows the handing down of a unanimous guilty verdict from a 12-men jury of the Circuit Court in the provincial capital, Voinjama.
Mr. Ballah was arrested on June 14, 2018 for shooting a man identified as Mulbah Z. Flomo, who was a Senior Student of the Lofa County Community College with a single barrel gun. He also gruesomely murdered a 9th grade student, Miss Krobu Gibson, who was said to be the wife of Mulbah Z. Flomo
The incident occurred while they both Krobu Gibson and her husband Mulbah Z. Flomo on the farm on Thursday June 14, when defendant Smithwou Ballah shot at Mulbah Flomo and later ran after his wife, Krobu Gibson.
She was shot her from the back and Mr. Ballah also cut off her head, her right hand, right foot and removed her private part in an attempt to destroy evidence.
The husband of Krubo, Mr. Mulbah Z. Flomo who was shot first, managed to get to the town of Fassabu from where he was rushed to the hospital in Zorzor. But due to the critical nature of injury, he was later referred to the Tellewoyan hospital in Voinjama.
The situation at the time led to aggrieved citizens of the area blocking the main road for several hours, demanding the living body of the alleged perpetrator and the parts of their sister.
Violence ensued with four houses belonging to the alleged perpetrator, his father and brother were set ablaze, with the destruction of his stockpile of ice. The father of the perpetrator, Kollie Ballah who was a school Principal in the area, later died in Monrovia while undergoing treatment after been flogged by the angry mob in Zalemia town.
The Zorzor police station was also attacked on June 15, 2018 by another group of angry mob, who also threw, leaving some properties damaged.
For the past 12 years Zorzor district in Lofa County seen a number of mysterious killings, with three of them being women.
Back in 2017, a little girl, Vewu Kesselee was killed. That was followed in 2010 by the killing of Miss. Korpo Kamara, who had left her Zorzor Lutheran Mission school campus to Konia town for weekend in Konia town.
Her death sparked serious protest by the student community in Zorzor district, which eventually hit Lofa County’s provincial capital, Voinjama causing massive destruction of properties. But no perpetrator was found.
Just a year later in 2011 a day after Liberia 171st Independent anniversary, Krubo Tarnue was killed, but her convicted murderer later reportedly escaped prison.
The string of gruesome murders and mysterious deaths in this have sent shock waves not only across Lofa but around Liberia, including the recent beheading of Krubo Gibson. Many have welcomed the latest conviction and sentencing of her 35-year-old murderer, Smithwou Ballah.