Maravi

Workers nab cop for stalking Masebo

Workers nab cop for stalking Masebo
Written by Chibaula Silwamba
Tuesday, January 06, 2009 5:01:24 PM

A 35-year-old Lusaka policeman was yesterday apprehended for allegedly
stalking former local government and housing minister Sylvia Masebo.

Workers at Masebo’s Ibex Hill residence in Lusaka apprehended the police officer identified as Wasilota Mukela and after searching him, they found him with a military bull-net knife hidden in his trousers, which they alleged he wanted to use to harm the former minister.

Masebo’s nephew Gomile Nkhata said Mukela had been stalking his aunt for the last two and half years claiming that she was his wife.

Nkhata said Mukela had been phoning Masebo almost every morning at 05:45 hours and evening at 22:00 hours, trying to speak to her as his wife.

He narrated that in July last year, security personnel at Masebo’s residence apprehended him and took him to Woodlands Police Station but was released four days later on grounds that he was not mentally sound.

“People who work at the gate said they have seen him several times; they say that he has been coming with different stories. He sometimes says Hon Masebo is his wife and sometimes he would say she is his auntie just to find a way to find access to the house. In July, last year he found security guards who did not know him so they allowed him to enter the yard but when Mr. Banda [Masebo’s aide] came and found him here, he asked him what he was doing saying that he had heard the madam complaining about him. After that Mr Banda took him to Woodlands Police but he was released,” Nkhata said.

Nkhata said as usual around 05:45 hours, Mukela phoned Masebo.

He said yesterday Mukela went to Masebo’s residence in a hired taxi. He said when Mukela reached the residence around 10:00 hours, he phoned Masebo but the former minister gave her phone to an MMD official who was there to answer the call.

Nkhata said when Mukela heard a male voice, he asked the taxi driver to drive off but before they could leave Masebo and other MMD officials - Belly Munyumbwe and Kennedy Matabula - came outside the yard.

Nkhata said at this point, the taxi driver stopped the vehicle but Mukela insisted that they drive off because he had wanted to see Masebo alone and not in the company of males.

Nkhata said the taxi driver disobeyed Mukela and stopped the vehicle. He said thereafter, Mukela disembarked and went to where Masebo stood and they started discussing.

And Munyumbwe, who was with Masebo, said Mukela was apprehended by the MMD officials, Masebo’s workers and neighbours.

“When we searched him, we found a knife inside the trousers near his buttocks and he had put his cell phone in the pants,” Munyumbwe said. “There is no doubt this man is being used by someone. He has been hired to do this. We even found him with a police identity card, national registration card, driver’s licence and K650,000 and an Indo-Zambia Bank Limited ATM [automated teller machine] card. All the documents bear the name Wasilota Mukela, his name.”

And Nkhata said Masebo now fears for her life.

“Of course, she fears for her life especially that this person has been consistently calling her every morning and evening,” said Nkhata.

Taxi driver, Solomon Phiri, who drove Mukela to Masebo’s residence, said the alleged stalker hired him from Chilenje to Ibex Hill.

Phiri said when they reached Masebo’s residence, Mukela spoke with Masebo on phone, saying he was outside and demanded that she comes out.

“He hired me saying I am going to Ibex and when we arrived here, I parked my car near the gate and he was talking to the madam on the phone that ‘I am here, open the gate.’ But after that he told me that ‘let’s go, take me to Kabulonga.’ But before we left, the madam with some men came out. This man went there and started talking to the madam and then he wanted to run away…that is when people caught him and they found him with the knife,” narrated Phiri. “I didn’t know why he came here.”

But Mukela claimed that Masebo was his wife and they had an oath, which the former minister was keeping. He also claimed that he went to Masebo’s residence to pick his police vehicle.

“I came to get my police vehicle which the late president Dr Levy Mwanawasa instructed the former inspector general of police to bring the vehicle here at the residence of Hon Masebo. The vehicle has been here until today when I’m told that it went back to the police,” Mukela narrated. “It was a personal vehicle from the Zambia Police.”

Asked why the vehicle was taken to Masebo’s residence, Mukela responded: “It was part of my condition of service to bring the vehicle at the farm here.”

Further asked if he was living at Masebo’s residence, Mukela said he was not.

“I was living in Mtendere where I still live,” he said.

However, Mukela could not clearly explain why the vehicle was taken to Masebo’s house when he was living in Mtendere.

Mukela said he did not go to see Masebo with anevil intentions.

“I have my ID; I was here on an innocent mission to get the vehicle. I didn’t come with evil minds. I had no intention to harm her,” Mukela insisted. He said the knife he was carrying belonged to the police.

Asked about assertions that he had been claiming to be Masebo’s husband, Mukela responded, “I must be frank; you will let me be innocent. Before she [Masebo] became a full Cabinet minister, I stood with her. I was on oath with her, which simply meant that I was her husband, isn’t it? She became a minister because of me. She is keeping the oath. That is what I know. By then she was in Hon BY Mwila’s party [Zambia Republican Party]. She stood in Chongwe constituency…way back. By then I was residing here, kept by the owners of Ibex Hill School at Twin Palm campus.”

But when asked about Mukela’s claims that he and Masebo had a marriage oath, Nkhata laughed, saying that Mukela had been changing stories to suit the situation.

Mukela was later taken to police headquarters for interrogation.

Police spokesperson Bonnie Kapeso said he did not have the details on the matter.

“I don’t know that story,” said Kapeso. “I can only give you the details after the officers have finished interviewing him.”

Labels: SYLVIA MASEBO

posted by MrK @ 5:02 PM