By NORMA SIAME? –
A TAXI driver in the border town of Nakonde has been strangled by four?men who later sped off with his vehicle into neigbouring Tanzania.
Police have since arrested four suspects believed to have gruesomely?murdered the taxi driver at the weekend.
Two of the four suspects were cornered in the Tanzanian border town of?Tunduma where they attempted to sell the stolen car.
Muchinga Police chief Bonny Kapeso said the other two suspects?were apprehended in Nakonde, while a fifth suspect is on the run.
Mr Kapeso identified the murdered taxi driver as Shadreck Sinkala, 23,?of Nyondo Village in Nakonde.
His body was found tied to a tree with a piece of sisal rope in the?bush near his village. The criminals strangled him using the sisal?rope.
According to information gleaned by Police during the course of the?investigations, which began on August 28 when the crime was committed,?five men booked the unregistered vehicle which was being used as a?pirate taxi by the deceased.
After murdering Mr Sinkala and disposing of his body, one of the five?suspects took registration plates from his own car and fixed them on?the stolen vehicle before driving it across the Nakonde Border into?Tanzania.
Close co-operation with law-enforcement officers in Tanzania led to?the arrest of the four as they attempted to pawn the stolen car.
‘‘We are grateful for the close co-operation shown to us by our?counterparts in Tanzania without whom the apprehension and taking into?custody of the suspects in this case would have proved difficult,’’ Mr?Kapeso said.
The body of Mr Sinkala is currently lying in Nakonde District Hospital?awaiting the arrival of a pathologist to conduct a postmortem.
Nakonde is notorious for carjacking with taxi drivers being the targets.
Meanwhile, a 24-year-old mother has died and her two-year-old child injured together with two other people after they were hit by a vehicle which lost control and ploughed through a group of traders in Mwense District, reports MOFFAT CHAZINGWA.
The victims were conducting business by the roadside where they were selling bananas and fritters when a Rosa minibus ploughed into them.
Luapula Province Commissioner of Police Malcolm Mulenga confirmed the fatal accident, which happened on Monday around 15:00 hours at an area 20 kilometres away from Mwense town centre.
Mr Mulenga named the deceased as Florence Musama of Kapena Village.
He said Ms Musama was with her two-year-old child selling foodstuff by the roadside alongside other traders when a Rosa minibus registration number ACT 7098 went off the highway and bashed into them.
“The minibus first hit a pedestrian and in the process, the driver lost control of the vehicle and eventually went and bashed three other people, among them, a woman with a two-year-old baby, that were selling bananas and fritters near the road,” Mr Mulenga said.
He identified the cyclist who was first hit by the minibus as Lazarus Chinyanta, 24, who sustained body injuries.
The accident victims were all taken to Mambilima Mission Hospital where they were admitted.
Mr Mulenga said the driver of the minibus, Mpungu Musongo, 29, was arrested and charged with causing death by dangerous driving.