CHARLES MUSONDA writes
A LUSAKA woman has lost K46, 000 after being swindled by a witchdoctor she engaged to solve a problem she had with her fiancée.
Evidence before the Lusaka Magistrate Court is that sometime in 2017, the woman identified as Anastasia Jere came across an advert in which the witchdoctor Kafero Omar, a Ugandan, claimed to be capable of solving marital, financial, spiritual and any other problems facing people.
Ms. Jere then phoned Omar who directed her to meet him at Shoprite Chilenje after which he led her to the house he rented in Chalala.
After the complainant narrated her problem to the accused person, he asked Ms. Jere to start paying for herbs to put in her bathing water.
When she went there on another occasion, Omar went into another room to talk to his spiritual god and later he claimed that his deity had directed him to ask Ms. Jere to provide K46, 000 that should be cleansed.
She got the money from her male friend and on September 11, 2017, she took it to Omar who told her to put the cash in a trunk so that it could be cleansed. He told her to leave and go back there the following day.
According to arresting officer Detective Chief Inspector Mubita Moola, when Ms. Jere went back to Omar’s residence she found that he had vacated the house and his phone was switched off.
“She tried to call the accused person’s number but it was off and that’s when she realised that she had been swindled. She reported the matter to Northmead police post where Detective Inspector Jere later released the accused person on police bond and told the complainant that she would be communicated to once the case was active in court.
“When the complainant noted that she was not being updated, she went to Lusaka urban district police where she was referred to Emmasdale police station to see me as criminal investigations officer in charge of the criminal investigations department of all 11 police posts under Emmasdale police station,” Mr. Moola testified before Magistrate Nsunge Chanda yesterday.
He said he later called for the docket from Inspector Jere and discovered that it was not well compiled and the police bond on which Omar was released was missing. Mr. Moola then took up the matter and instituted investigations.
He said during investigations he interviewed the owner of the house Omar was renting in Chalala and she told him that the witchdoctor had paid rent for three months in advance but he vacated the house only after two months without informing her.
Mr. Moola added that in the first week of August 2018, he received information that Omar had been convicted of illegal stay in Zambia and was serving the sentence at Lusaka Central Correctional Centre and he got him from there for interviews.
He said Omar denied the charge but he made up his mind to charge him for theft contrary to Section 272 of the Penal Code Chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia. Trial continues.