A 46-YEAR-OLD police sergeant stationed at the Morris Depot National Armoury yesterday appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Court charged with stealing 10 rifles with ammunition and selling them to poachers.
BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE
Alouis Mabika, who was represented by Tungamirai Muganhiri, pleaded not guilty to the charge and was remanded to October 12 on $200 bail by Harare provincial magistrate Elisha Singano.
It is the State’s case that on September 11 this year, detectives were tipped off that Mabika had stolen firearms from the national armoury, that included a .303 rifle, three .30-06 rifle with rounds, two 7/9 rifle with rounds, one 3,75 rifle with rounds, one AK-47 rifle with rounds, two FN rifles with rounds and a silencer, which he sold to Obiat Shumba, a suspected poacher from Gokwe.
Mabika was sold out by Shumba, who was arrested in Gokwe at the weekend.
Shumba had since pleaded guilty to the charge and was fined $100 on Monday by Harare magistrate Nomsa Sabarauta.
Meanwhile, a 62-year-old Harare man, Timothy Munetsi, also appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Court charged with selling his unlicensed gun to a local man, who went on to commit suicide inside the Rainbow Towers Hotel.
Munetsi pleaded guilty when he appeared before Sabarauta, who remanded him to today for sentencing pending a ballistic report. He was facing two counts of contravening sections of the Firearms Act, that is for failing to renew his firearm licence and unlawful transfer of a firearm.
