Church thieves slapped 30 months jail sentence

The Midima Senior Resident Magistrate Court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced two men to 30 months imprisonment with hard labour for burglary.

According to Limbe Police Public Relations Officer (PRO) Pedzisai Zembeneko the two, Samuel Pagonegone, 20, and Martin Tsenga, 22, broke into Chitsime CCAP Church in Makhetha in September last year and stole assorted items.

“On 9 September, 2016 members of Chitsime CCAP Church based at Makhetha received visitors from Chilobwe CCAP Church in Ntcheu.

“The visitors were allocated space to sleep in the church together with one member of Chitsime CCAP Church and at around 2:00 am one of the visitors woke up to answer a call of nature but was shocked to notice that his cell phone was missing,” said Zembeneko.

Zembeneko said the visitor woke his colleagues up who also discovered that their items were missing.

“The stolen items were; one suitcase containing assorted clothes, one pair of shoes, 3 cell phones, one sack containing cabbage and onions, two holy Bibles and two church hymns.

Pagonegone hails from Makukutu Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Mkanda in Mulanje while Tsenga hails from Chinupule Village T/A Kapeni in Blantyre.