35-year-old man arrested over murder in Dowa

Police in Dowa district have arrested Yotamu Fulatiya,35, for allegedly murdering Climton Watson, 23, for failing to repay a loan of K90,000.

According to police spokesperson in the district, Alice Sitima, the incident happened on December 30 last year.

Sitima said that the suspect entered into an agreement with the deceased and the two agreed that the K90,000 loan will be paid with 50kg of fertilizer as the deceased was one of the people who were expected to benefit from the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP).

But after some time, the suspect was surprised that the deceased was not seen in the village, and rumors spread that the deceased had escaped.

On December 30, 2023, the two met at a shopping center called Mwelero, but their conversation did not end well until the suspect took the deceased to his brother’s house where he strangled the deceased to death.

Some people informed the police who rushed to the house where they found Watson’s body with wounds and Postmortem results showed that death was caused by suffocation.

Fulatiya, who hails from Mwelero village in Traditional Authority Msakambewa in Dowa district, is expected to appear in court soon to answer murder charge.