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Eight police officers charged with murder
2006-02-21 09:09:09
By Hannah Mwandoloma
Hundreds of curious Dar es Salaam residents jammed the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday to have a glimpse of the eight police suspects as they took to the dock to answer charges of shooting dead four gemstone traders last month.
Security was tight as the suspects were led into the courtroom through the rear gate at 11am.
State counsel William Magoma, who led the prosecution, identified the accused as E 6712 Felix Cedrick, D/C Jane Andrew, D/CPL Nyangelera, ASP Christopher Bageni, CPL Emmanuel Magula, PC Michale, D 2300 Abeneth and PC Noel.
The suspects appeared before Principal Resident Magistrate Francis Mutungi.
The police officers have been accused of murdering three businessmen — Sabinus Chigumbi, Ephraim Chigumbi, Mathias Lugombe, all residents of Mahenge, Ulanga District, Morogoro Region, and a taxi driver, Juma Ndugu, a resident of Manzese, Dar es Salaam — on January 14, 2006 in Sinza residential area, Dar es Salaam.
Mutungi was forced to adjourn the court proceedings for an hour as a result of a mix-up on the charge sheet, which initially showed that 15 suspects would be arraigned in court.
The prosecution had applied for the break to give it time to amend the charge sheet.
However, after an hour, and with the charge sheet having been amended to read eight names instead of 15 accused, the proceedings resumed, setting the stage for preliminary inquiry into the murder case.
Seven of the 15 accused mentioned in Justice Kipenka’s report to President Jakaya Kikwete are still at large.
Abdallah Zombe, who was acting Dar es Salaam Police Commander when the alleged murders took place, was not charged as was widely expected.
His name is also not among the remaining seven who are said to be on the run.
Curious members of the public arrived at the court as early as 8am to have a glimpse of the accused.
Most of the people who jammed court said they had gone there to have a glimpse of Zombe.
The audience at the Kisutu Resident Court had to be reminded that they risked being in contempt of the court after they broke into songs and dances to mock the accused, and praise President Jakaya Kikwete for taking such a decisive action against the police.
The suspects were not allowed to enter a plea nor apply for bail. Murder is a capital offence, hence unbailable.
Magoma asked the court to adjourn the case to March 6 to give investigators time to compile evidence.
He also warned the press against probing the deaths, complaining that newspapers had usurped the prosecution role of the state and the courts.
Magoma also lamented to the magistrate that the media had taken over the role of the police in investigating the matter, and would most likely influence the outcome of the case if they were not restrained.
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