Mbeya robbery arrests now a puzzle

The Police Headquarters has dispatched four police officers to investigate the arrest of three people suspected to have killed a policeman in Mbeya last week.

By Pascal Shao

 
The Police Headquarters has dispatched four police officers to investigate the arrest of three people suspected to have killed a policeman during an armed robbery incident which occurred in Mbeya last week.

 

The Deputy Director of Criminal Investigation, Peter Kivuyo, told reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the four police officers had gone to Mbeya to establish the truth of the matter.

 

`We want to hear from the people, not from relatives of the people arrested. We want to establish whether they are innocent people or criminals,` he said.

 

More than 200 people from Tukuyu demonstrated to the Mbeya Regional Commissioner�s office on Monday to protest against the arrests.

 

They claimed that the three suspects who were arrested on Sunday were not armed robbers as claimed by the police. They said the three were businessmen running meat shops in Tukuyu.

 

Speaking about the arrests, Kivuyo said circumstantial evidence had led the police to arrest the suspects because they had bullet wounds, which made police to suspect that they were injured during the shoot out.

 

The suspects – Geofrey George, Sambayete Chacha and Ipyana Mwakalambile – were arrested as they went to seek treatment at the Mbeya Referral Hospital.

 

The three however, claimed that they had been wounded by armed robbers who invaded a guest house at Mbalizi on the outskirts of Mbeya city.

 

Police however, said that the owner of the lodge – Mapemba Guest House – did not report the incident to the police, hence making it difficult for them to believe the three suspects� story.

 

During the shoot out which occurred on Friday at Ndiyo Mini Supermarket, Mbeya Regional Police Commander Suleiman Kova narrowly escaped from death while a police officer who was also a student of Mzumbe University Mbeya Campus, Juma Rajab Tenga (27), was killed in his presence.

 

The deceased was cautioning people who were at the scene to lie down so as to avoid being shot by robbers who were shooting rampantly after one their accomplices had been killed.

 

In January last year, a similar demonstration was staged by protesters in Ulanga District following the killing by police officers of four people on allegations that they were involved in armed robbery, although they were reputed as precious stone dealers in Ulanga.

 

Source: Guardian