Police fired teargas and arrested four men at Limbuli Trading Centre in Mulanje District yesterday after a mob descended on Edga’s Lodge, looting and torching the facility in the process.

The lodge is owned by businessperson Edson Nachuma whom the mob alleged was behind a spate of armed robberies at Limbuli and Muloza trading centres, allegations he denied in an interview last evening.

Mulanje Police Station spokesperson Sergeant Innocent Moses said the mob attacked the lodge yesterday morning and when the police intervened, they were attacked and chased by the irate mob.

He said the mob then descended on Nachuma’s house to loot and destroy his property which included two vehicles, office and house furniture, among other valuable items.

Edga’s Lodge on fire during the riots at Limbuli yesterday

“Police tried to fire teargas to disperse the mob from the two premises but to no avail as people continued to plunder and set the buildings on fire,” said Moses.

However, he said police managed to arrest four people, who are suspected to have been part of the mob that destroyed and looted property at the lodge.

“The suspects will answer malicious damage and theft charges as we found them with two plasma television sets and a bicycle from the lodge. We are still investigating to get more information about the other looters,” said Moses.

One of the eye witnesses, who refused to be named, said the fracas started after an incident on Sunday night where an armed robber killed a businessperson police identified as Joseph Monishi.

Said the witness: “The deceased was a Mozambican who had settled in Namasalima Village. In the morning, when people heard about his death, some ganged up to accuse Nachuma of being behind the incident.

“They sought revenge by looting Nachuma’s property starting with destroying Nachuma Lodge and home.”

But in an interview last evening, Nachuma said his only crime was to protect a robbery suspect who was nearly killed by a mob two weeks ago.

He said: “Robbers attacked one of our friends one thief and while the other was killed by the mob.

“As a chairperson of bussinesspersons at Limbuli, I begged my colleagues that we should get the suspect alive to police as he had accomplices that had to be caught too, but my friends wanted him dead.

“We disagreed, but I insisted that he should be arrested for police to do their job. However, following another robbery incident on Sunday, where a businessperson was robbed of over K1 million and killed, people started pointing fingers at me for sparing a thief’s life.”

Nachuma said the looters stole about K27 million from his house. He said the damage at the lodge was yet to be assessed.

Meanwhile, according to the police, the suspects who have been arrested are James Labana,37, from Chituwawa Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Mthiramanja,  Bright Ephraim, 17, from Suza Village in T/A Njema in Mulanje, Christopher Jeke, 19, from Kalinde Village in T/A Kaduya in Phalombe and Manuel Juwawo, 23, Villa Mulanje Province in Mozambique.

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