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Police in Chingola have arrested three people in connection with the murder of a 34-year-old taxi driver in Chingola, where his vehicle was stolen and stripped of some parts.
Copperbelt police commanding officer Peacewell Mweemba named those arrested as Shadreck Mukosha, 34, of Chibolya, Mufulira, Stephen Kankomba, 34, of Soweto, Chingola, and Godfrey Kashale, 18, also of the same township.
The victim has been identified as Leonard Sichinga, 34, a taxi driver of Chingola, believed to have been murdered last week on Monday on the Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) lines in Soweto Township. After murdering the victim, the assailants took off with his motor vehicle registration number BCA 674 valued at K85,000.
During investigations, police found the vehiclee at house number B3 Zambia Township in Chambishi. “After police inspected the vehicle, they found that the engine, gearbox, and fuel tank were stripped off and the vehicle was a shell,” Mr Mweemba said.
Police searched the house in the yard where the vehicle was parked and found rear and front tyres inside.
“After interviewing Mr Laban Munyenyembe, the owner of the said house, he indicated that his tenant paid rentals through his wife [last Thursday] and never slept in the house although he was seen the following day with the said vehicle when it was intact before he started removing all the four tyres,” he said.
Mr Mweemba said after apprehending the three suspects, police learnt that Mukosha engaged Kankomba and Kashale to steal any vehicle that was “loose” that day.
Kashale is said to have booked the vehicle that Sichinga was driving and indicated that he wanted to pick some metal bars along CEC pole lines.
Mr Mweemba said after the victim drove the vehicle up to a certain point, Kashale asked the driver to stop and two of his colleagues who were hiding in the bush came out and dragged the driver out and started beating him until he died.
