By JACK MWEWA –
IT appears like robbers have discovered Central Province a ‘fertile prey ground’ for their criminal escapades.
What about reports that robbers snatched more than K100,000 near Big Bite in Kabwe, reports that Bulgarian nationals were recently jailed for fraudulently drawing money from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in Kabwe?
Armed with devices for forgery, it was heard that they later chose Kabwe as a place from where they would try out on ATMs in a bid to siphon cash.
It was from Central Province a Times of Zambia staffer Sylvia Mweetwa recently reported that a lone gunman was shot dead in Mkushi after terrorising patrons in guest houses and lodges.
It was said that the gunman had earlier staged a robbery at a lodge where he held hostage a receptionist and ordered that he be shown the manager’s office where he got away with a cash box containing money.
“In December last year, fear gripped Serenje residents where the gunman went on rampage shooting dead a Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) officer before breaking into five rooms at two lodges and got away with K3,059 cash and a camera from an American Peace Corps volunteer.
He later stormed a pastor’s room where he hauled K2,000 cash.
The thefts were mostly targeting lodges, where people lost their valuables and money in a similar manner in Mkushi and Serenje districts.
During the robberies, the gunman held security guards at gunpoint and used them to knock on the doors of the unsuspecting clients.
The first victim was a pastor from whom the attacker grabbed more than K2,000 and warned him against raising alarm.
Another business executive was also robbed of K30,000 and an undisclosed amount of money in foreign currency at a lodge in Mkushi.
And a Kitwe-based business executive, who sought to multiply money was enticed to travel to Mkushi where his would-be swindlers said would be a ‘safer’ place to multiply cash from.
He said: “They told me that since the money involved was a lot, we needed to travel to Mkushi which they said would be a safer place to conduct the magical powers to multiply the K50,000 I wanted doubled.”
Once in Mkushi, the business executive was tricked to surrender the money, was beaten up, stripped off his clothes and left for dead.
Central Province Police Commissioner Standwell Lungu said the province, being geographically central, transited all sorts of passengers, some of them with criminal minds intent on staging such acts.
“Central Province is centrally located, you have people passing through, some from as far as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and South Africa who could stage criminal acts,” Mr Lungu said.
To confirm Mr Lungu’s observations, coming from Bulgaria, the two men earlier mentioned had with them three high-tech pinhole camera bars, three magnetic card readers, 19 non-branded bank magnetic strip cards, a laptop, six download cables, one heavy-duty snap blade cutter and mounting tapes.
With the above tabulated paraphernalia, the two suspects were spotted by a security guard fidgeting from Kabwe ATMs taking advantage of the town’s population paucity.
Apart from outsiders committing crimes in Kabwe, local people too have their share of crazy exploits with men in uniform topping the list.
A soldier was convicted for brutally murdering his wife whose body he later bundled in a sack and asked his friend to help him dispose off a ‘dog’.
The other soldier hailed from Ndola to allegedly stab a woman’s private parts with a bayonet while in Kabwe, yet another trailed male and female pupils in the bush whom he also allegedly forced to have sex and later raped the same girl.
Bewildered by their uniformed husband’s stunts, wives once complained that idleness led their husbands to misbehaving and called on authorities to keep them busy.
It was from the same province that three notorious brothers in Mika, Stefan and Fabian, collectively known as Mailoni brothers, struck fear in Luano Valley from 2007 to 2013 before they were slain.
Apart from it being a thicket valley, Luano was found to be a perfect hideout for the killer brothers who eluded police’s search for six years.
It is worth noting that criminal activities have previously been reported in isolation from towns like Mazabuka and Livingstone in Southern Province.
Police investigations once revealed that perpetrators hailed from the Copperbelt and Lusaka to terrorise towns they perceived sleepy in Southern Province.
Once upon a time, Copperbelt Province was dreaded for its hard-core criminals in Never Spoiler Kapenda, Morgan Mwansa and Uncle Barry, among others, who terrorised the province with their modus operandi that saw them easily sneak into Zaire, now DRC.
DRC’s proximity, high human population and density of some plantations were said to be ideal and as such criminals found the Copperbelt a perfect ‘hunting’ ground.
Mr Lungu has counsel for residents in the province: “All of them must be alert. They should be careful with strangers who may appear to be asking for assistance, in either locating some places or requesting for directions.”
He has also advised residents transporting or drawing huge sums of money to secure police escort and avoid keeping cash in homes.
Mr Lungu has further increased, 24 hours, police patrols in the province in a bid to curb criminal activities.
Results of increased security alertness have seen a number of wrong-doers being arrested, sent to courts and convicted.
With security alert campaigns, and residents’ eye for suspicious visitors, Central Province is on track to getting rid of intruders.