Elizabeth Haja Massaquoi Goes Into Hiding

Reports reaching this medium reveal that one Elizabeth Haja Massaquoi has gone into hiding to avoid arrest by the police on allegation of harboring, aiding and abetting the escape of a coup suspect, Captain Mamoud Alpha Jalloh, who was involved in the November 26 attempted coup against the government of Sierra Leone.

According to sources, Captain Mamoud Alpha Jalloh is the fiance of Elizabeth Haja Massaquoi, who is a worker at the Kambia government hospital. He has been a regular visitor to her house and both had been seen together for a considerable time.

However, our sources revealed that after the 26th November Attempted Coup on the government, both have not been seen together, but there were speculations that he was around, though no one knew for sure.

News of his presence in Kambia came when the police visited the work place of Elizabeth and questioned her about her fiance. It became apparent when a combined force of police and military stormed her house in the morning of January 2024, cordoning the entire area.

According to our investigation the police disclosed that they have intelligence that Elizabeth Haja Massaquoi facilitated the escape of Captain Mamoud Alpha Jalloh on 16th December 2023 to Guinea. They furthered that prior to that date they had interrogated her about the whereabouts of Captain Jalloh and had denied any knowledge of his whereabouts, but with fresh information on her role in the alleged facilitation of his escape to Guinea, they tried to arrest her, but that proved futile as she was nowhere to be found. A search has been mounted for her and a declaration of being wanted by the police has been made.

Elizabeth Haja Massaquoi is alleged to have harbored one Captain Mamoud Alpha Jalloh, a suspect of the said attempted coup, at her Kambia home in northern Sierra Leone, after he had escaped arrest for the said offense. And had thereafter, enabled him to sneak out of the country via a hospital ambulance to Guinea on16th December, disguising him as a doctor.

Our investigation of the matter revealed that Elizabeth Haja Massaquoi, working at the Kambia government hospital provided refuge for the Captain and surreptitiously sneaked him out of the country on 16th December 2023, by disguising him as a doctor, on the pretext of going to collect a seriously ill patient in Guinea, so as to avoid inspection at the border.

She is said to have returned to Kambia from Guinea, but close neighbors say that they had seen the Captain briefly around her house, and the driver, who drove her to Guinea and back, noticed when the doctor onboard the vehicle disembarked that he was the Captain and not a real doctor. Upon their return, he explained what transpired, which information was later relayed to the police.

However, Elizabeth is said to have been tipped about the situation and the pending raid few hours earlier, and she simply disappeared into a nearby market and made good her escape.

During a visit by our regional correspondence after the raid, residents in the vicinity of Elizabeth’s house, explained that they saw heavy police and military presence at her house in the morning of January 2024, and that they too were not allowed to leave their houses. They furthered that the police stormed her house, putting all those in the compound under gun point, searching every room in the compound before leaving. The residents confirmed that Elizabeth was not at the house when it was raided, they believe that Elizabeth Haja Massaquoi may have escaped through the very porous border crossings of Sierra Leone, and has since not been seen.

As we go to press, the whereabouts of  Elizabeth Haja Massaquoi are still unknown, and the police maintain that the search for the Captain Mamoud Alpha Jalloh and his fiancee, who they now term as an accomplice, is still on.