Armed robber nabbed in Phalombe

Police in Phalombe district are keeping in custody a thief suspected to have been terrorizing the district using an AK47.

The suspect identified as Kondwani George, 34, is currently answering armed robbery charges before Phalombe second grade magistrate Lawrence Mangani.

It is said that on the night of 17th June this year, armed robbers broke into the house of Leston Gogoda who is a businessman at Mauzi trading centre in Chiringa where they managed to steal money amounting to Mk2.8 million.

The robbers also went away with airtime from both Malawian network providers and Movitel of the neighbouring Mozambique worth Mk300,000.

It is said that the wife of the complainant is the one who revealed where the money and airtime was after being assaulted and threatened.

According to the district’s Police spokesperson Augustus Nkhwazi, apart from Gogoda there were only two other people at the house who were aware that such huge amount of money was being kept in the house.

“The only people who knew that such money was in Gogoda’s house were his wife and brother in-law and he wanted to use it to buy a maize mill,” he told Malawi24 in an interview.

The victim later reported the matter to Chiringa Police Unit and he told the law enforcers that he recognised one of the robbers which led to the arrest of George.

George pleaded not guilty in court claiming he knows nothing about the matter but the state paraded witnesses to testify against him.

Police investigation team told the court that they found a cartilage of AK47 at the scene and according to their investigations the suspect’s relative was once a soldier for RENAMO in Mozambique which led the police to believe that the suspect holds such a rifle.

In the meantime, George has been found with a case to answer and is expected to appear in court on Thursday next week to defend himself in order to escape jail.

George hails from Mangani Village in the area of Traditional Authority Nazombe in the district.