By REBECCA MUSHOTA –

A SEVENTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD man of Kabende Village in Chief Kasoma Bangweulu in Samfya has been killed and buried by a mob that suspected him of practising witchcraft.
Muchinga Kabali was killed on Sunday February 24.
Luapula Province Police chief Malcolm Mulenga said that around 16:00 hours on the said date, an angry mob descended on Mr Kabali with various objects and brutally killed him.
Mr Mulenga said Mr Kabali was suspected of changing into a crocodile which was terrorising and killing people in the area.
He said around 17:00 hours, a 28-year-old Evans Chibuye of Prisons Township reported the matter to Samfya Police saying that he had seen a mob attack a man.
When police officers rushed to the village, they found the mob had dispersed and the body of Mr Kabali was already buried by the same mob.
Mr Mulenga said no arrests have been made and investigations had been launched into the matter.
“I wish to warn the public to refrain from taking the law into their own hands. Those found wanting concerning this matter will be dealt with,” he said.
Mr Mulenga said police have marked the grave and have informed medical practitioners that they would exhume the body to conduct a postmortem.
And some armed robbers attacked a house in Mwamfuli Village in Chief Kasoma Bangweulu’s area in Samfya District and stole K52,000.
Mr Mulenga said three men armed with a metal bar on Monday last week between 19:00 hours and 20:00 hours broke into the said house by forcing open the rear door.
He said the owner of the house, a business executive, George Musaka, 49, who owns a shop at Mwamfuli Market in Samfya that stocks assorted goods, was at the shop at the time of the incidence.
His wife Barbara Musaka, 32, was the only one at home at the time of the attack.
Ms Musaka said one of the robbers was wearing a mask and the three of them beat her up leaving her with a broken left arm.
The thieves got away with K52,000.
Ms Musaka called her husband who rushed home and only reported the matter to police the next day around 14:00 hours.
Mr Mulenga said no arrests had been made in the matter and investigations were underway.
He urged members of the public not to keep money in homes as that was not safe.