“My son cried for help; he called out to people to save his life; explaining that he wasn’t a criminal, but no one could help my dying son”.
Those were the chilling words of Afia Kyeraa, mother of the slain soldier, Sheriff Imoro, when JoyNews visited their family home in Zongo-Lakka, Ashaiman to commiserate with them.
A distraught mother, Afia, found it difficult to string words together to describe exactly how she felt when news about the demise of her son got to her.
According to her, she was washing on Saturday morning when a friend of Sheriff’s came to the house to ask about him (Sherrif), because he had been called from Burma camp that Sheriff had sought permission to return home due to ill-health.
“I told him I haven’t seen him, and he would not sleep anywhere outside of our home because that is not his nature,” she told JoyNews.
According to her, it was when one of her brothers and some friends started coming around that she felt, all was not well.
“One of my brothers came here and told me he wanted to tell me something after I had told him about the call from Burma camp. Then one of my sisters came and shouted Sheriff’s name, and fainted afterward.
“I didn’t understand what was happening. All of a sudden, I saw more people rushing here; looking at their phones and staring at me as well. So I snatched one person’s phone and saw a picture of my son in uniform, and another of a killed soldier. As soon as I saw the picture, I knew that was my son,” she narrated in tears.
Afia Kyeraa explained that she could not decipher what could have led to the killing of an innocent soul as her child barely talked in the community.
“When people started telling me that Sherif has been killed in (Ashaiman) Taifa, I asked what could have led to that, because I know my son is not a troublesome person. So why would anybody kill him? I was asking myself a lot of questions. It wasn’t easy for me. Even though I had not heard the confirmation, I couldn’t hold back my tears,” a sad-looking Afia Kyeraa told JoyNews.
She says she could not believe the cruelty of some human beings when she was told how people refused to help her dying son when he called for help at the moment he needed one the most.
“… I heard the news about how my son struggled and called for help but nobody was willing to help him out. My son shouted for help, explaining that he was a soldier and not a criminal, but no one would listen. I have even heard that the Assemblyman for the Taifa area was called to intervene, but he told them the person could be a criminal so he refused to come out to help,” she cried out.
The cry of a mother for the brutal murder of her only hope of a better life is something difficult to string words together to describe. Our hearts go out to her and the family.
