A CHITUNGWIZA supermarket employee has been arrested and charged as an accomplice in a $11 000 robbery.
BY SENIOR COURT REPORTER
The employee, Gibson Guri, allegedly supplied information pertaining to the shop set-up and location of the safe to one of the alleged armed robbers, Andrew Chijokwe, who was masquerading as a policeman.
Guri is alleged to have also provided Chijokwe with the security information, the number of guards at the premises and how they operated.
The movie-style robbery occurred on July 24 this year at Munyoro Supermarket, Makoni shopping centre, where the robbers – some of whom were in police uniform – pounced on unsuspecting guards.
Armed with the vital information, the suspects allegedly kidnapped security guards, broke into the shop and made off with a safe containing $11 000.
Chijokwe allegedly committed the robbery in the company of Tichaona Siwala, Ignatius Muchanyu, Stephen Matanhire and Taurai Dzingai. The five were arrested, but their alleged accomplices, Bonface George and Learnmore Jomaya, are still at large.
Siwala and Muchanyu were allegedly dressed in police uniform. Upon arrival at the supermarket, the two bogus cops allegedly approached the security guards, disarmed them, kidnapped and bundled them into their getaway vehicle.
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Meanwhile, the other robbers broke into the supermarket, ransacked the shop and stole the safe before disappearing from the scene.
It is alleged they drove along the Chitungwiza-Harare Road and eventually dumped the guards in a bushy area near Harare International Airport.
The gang allegedly proceeded to Domboshava where they broke the safe, took the cash and threw the safe into a dam.
The incident was reportedly witnessed by villagers who were close by.
It is alleged Guri was later contacted and offered $900 for information on the robbery, but his luck ran out after his accomplices were arrested and implicated him, leading to his arrest on Thursday last week.
He was not asked to plead when he appeared before Harare magistrate Anita Tshuma, who remanded him in custody to November 12 after prosecutor Tungamirai Chakurira opposed bail.
