A 30 year old man is remanded at Chichiri Prison for destroying eight national registration identity cards belonging to different individuals in Chilobwe Township.
Blantyre police spokesperson Augustus Nkhwazi has identified the man as Benjamin Chamba of Kadulanya village, Traditional Authority Kamenyagwaza in Dedza but is a resident of Chilobwe in Blantyre.
According to Nkhwazi, in mid-March 2018 Chamba met people and told them he had job offers for them.
“He gave them a condition that he will only offer the job to only those who are citizens of Malawi.
“He asked at least eight people to bring their national identity cards before they could be considered for the job,” Nkhwazi said.
However, as the job offer which the suspect did not disclose was taking long, the owners of the national identity cards became suspicious of the whole process and demanded to be given back their IDs.
One of the victims, Catherine Makweka aged 33, later observed that the gold chip on her national identity card had been tampered with.
Chamba also did the same thing with the seven other identity cards.
Makweka reported the matter to Chilobwe Police Unit and police arrested Chamba on Monday.
He appeared before the Blantyre Magistrates Court Wednesday where he was remanded to Chichiri Prison.
He will be brought before the court Friday for bail ruling which he applied before her worship First Grade Magistrate Dianna Mangwana.
Chamba is facing a charge of Mutilating National Identity Cards contravening section 42 (c) (d) of the National Registration Act of 2010.
The motive behind this heinous conduct by the suspect is yet to be established.
Damaging the National Identity is like selling his country to a foreign individual andmthis man does not deserve a bail but to serve the jail senyence.