Zimbabwe: The Cameroonian businessman and his official accomplice appeared in court on Jan 25, 2024 for kidnapping his truck driver who failed to deliver a consignment of 600 bags of fertiliser in Zambia.
As per the sources, the driver was kidnapped from Zimbabwe and was taken to Zambia, where he was put in remand prison for about two months.
Reportedly, Brian Chande, aged 50, from Chitungwiza region and Moussa Mounchikpou from The Grange were asked not to plead when they appeared in court before Harare magistrate – Stanford Mambanje, already charged with kidnapping.
As per the reports by the police, the kidnapping allegedly took place in Oct 28, 2023 from Mounchikpou’s offices at number 21, Douglas Road, Workington, Harare. Mounchikpou is the director of the ‘Profburg Private Limited’ company.
Notably, the victim was identified as Tasara Hwata, who is age 47 and was summoned to the office by his boss and Chande, together with three other accomplices, who are still at large.
According to the reports, the accused claimed to be police officers and told Hwata that he was under arrest for not delivering 600 bags of fertilisers at Omnia Fertiliser Company in Zambia.
According to the police statement, the accused trio further assaulted Hwata, they handcuffed him and beated him with a baton stick. They even ordered him to tell them where he had offloaded the truck, which was loaded with fertiliser.
The accused people then forcefully took Hwata into their motor vehicle against his will at around 5:00 p.m. They drove to Chirundu Border Post, where they handed him over to Lloyd Chisumba, who is a Zambian national and was in the company of Zambian police officers.
However, the court has also heard Chimbusa, who was using an Isuzu twin cab and took Hwata to the Mosque Police Post in Makeni, Zambia, where he was detained.
Hwata was able to report through Interpol on Dec 18, 2023, so Anesu Chirenje appeared for the State.