By KASONDE KASONDE and REBECCA MUSHOTA? –
TWO Tanzanian truck drivers have been arrested for being in possession of Mukula tree in Kapiri Mposhi District in Central Province.
Daud Temotheo, 47, was driving a Volvo truck registration number T523CJLjl and trailer T617AXG, while Alex Daud, 29, driving a DAF Truck Registration number T172CQQ and trailer T390CAP.
Central Province Police chief Standwell Lungu said Police in Kapiri picked up the two Tanzanian truck drivers on Tuesday night.
Mr Lungu said the incident happened on around 23:00 hours at Manyumbi check point along the Great North Road.?The two truck drivers are both from Abdikadir Company Limited of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Mr Lungu said the drivers have since been charged with unlawful possession of biological resource and would appear in court soon.
There has been an increase in cases of truckloads of Mukula logs being intercepted by police with the exotic tree facing depletion from the Zambian forests due to illegal harvesting.
Meanwhile, two women and three children have drowned in the Luapula River in Mwense District when the canoe they were in as they were fishing capsized.
The incident happened on Tuesday around 14:00 hours.
So far, bodies of the two women and two children have been retrieved, while the search for the body of one child was still on.
Luapula Province Police chief Malcolm Mulenga said Jackline Mwansa, 28 and Florence Mpundu, 23, of Mutondo Village in Chief Mulundu’s area in Mwense District while fishing on Tuesday in a canoe in the company of three children, Shadrick Chileya, 8, Jackline Mwansa, one-year-eight-months-old and Ben Mwansa who is two months old.
Mr Mulenga said it was believed that the canoe was leaking and it capsized leading to the drowning of the five.
The Musonda Ward councillor in Mwense Francis Mpundu was the one that informed the Police through a phone call that a canoe had capsized and five people had drowned.
“The body of Jackline Mwansa, 28, was retrieved on Wednesday and another body of a woman Florence Mpundu was retrieved today (yesterday) at 07:00 hours,” Mr Mulenga said.
Later yesterday, two more bodies of the children, Jackline and Ben were also retrieved.
Police were still searching for the body of Shadreck.
