|
|
|
|
| National |
| Mpasu testifies against Macholowe |
|
by
Henry Chilobwe, 12 January 2005
-
10:35:25
|
Convict Joseph Mpasu on Tuesday testified against Clive Macholowe and Yusuf Sanudi in a case where the two are accused of shooting to death police officer Fanuel and robbing the Blantyre District Education Office (DEO) of K574, 311.06 meant for teachers’ salaries in 1997.
Mpasu, who pleaded guilty to the robbery charge late last year and was sentenced to seven years IHL, told the jam-packed High Court in Blantyre that Macholowe gave him K10,000 ($93) for hiring two vehicles, a white Toyota Corolla registration number MN 518 and a Toyota Hilux, from Safari Car Hire.
He said Macholowe changed the registration number of the Toyota Corolla from MN 518 to LL 2035 which the group, comprising Macholowe, Sanudi, Patrick Kamanga, Sidney Pangani and another man only identified as Julio, used in the operation to rob the DEO premises.
“We were travelling in that car when Clive received a call from Yusuf Sanudi asking him to go to Sanudi’s house. When we arrived at the house we found Patrick Kamanga, Julio, Yusuf Sanudi and a certain primary school teacher from Ndirande.
“Then Clive, Yusuf and the school teacher went aside where they had a discussion and shortly after that, Clive announced to the group that the teacher had informed him that there was a lot of money at the DEO’s office which we had to steal,” Mpasu told the court.
Mpasu, who was then a student at the Polytechnic, said he did not participate in the operation because the car the group was to travel in was too small to accommodate six people.
He said the group told him they had not stolen any money from the DEO’s office because they had picked a wrong safe which did not contain any money.
“I was surprised to read in one of the papers the following day that Blantyre DEO’s offices had been robbed of K3 million and that a police officer who was guarding the premises had been killed. I asked Sanudi but he insisted that they did not steal any money. He told me that the police man had been shot dead by Julio because he was trying to stop them from robbing the offices,” said Mpasu.
He also recognised the guns that the DPP earlier on tendered in the court as evidence “ because of the yellow strap which they have”.
“We armed ourselves with a pistol supplied by Clive, an AK 47 supplied by Patrick Kamanga and another AK 47 which I and Kamanga got from Chikwawa from Kamanga’s friend who once served in the Army,” he said.
In cross examination, Macholowe’s lawyer Michael Mtambo said Mpasu was not the right person to testify against his client because he is a convict of armed robbery and serving a seven year jail term for the offence in which Macholowe was co-accused.
Earlier in the day the DPP also paraded two other witnesses Agnes Chikadza and Tebothly Mbale.
Mbale said he was one of the police officers who rushed to the scene of the robbery where they recovered two live ammunition, three pellets and a bag containing empty cartridges and a magazine.
He further told the court that the police searched Sanudi’s house where they recovered three AK 47 assault riffles, an R4 rifle which he said was identified to be the one robbed from the slain police man and 300 live bullets buried in the backyard of Sanudi’s house.
Asked if he could identify the guns that were tendered by the DPP, Mbale said he recognised them as the ones the police recovered at both the DEO’s premises and Sanudi’s house.
Hearing continued on Wednesday where the DPP was expected to parade six more witnesses.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
