Escapee nabbed

Karen Ndlovu

GWANDA-A young man will live to regret the day he escaped movie-style from  police custody following his arrest for theft. 

Kelvin Gama aged 21, appeared before Gwanda Magistrate, Polite Dube-Banda after being charged on two counts, namely, stock theft and escaping from lawful custody.  

Circumstances surrounding the case are that on the 21st of June 2022 Kelvin went to house number 31 Spitzkop in Gwanda and proceeded to steal Sehliso Moyo’s chickens. 

A police report was made by Moyo leading to Gama’s arrest on the 23rd of June 2022. He was taken into custody by ZRP Gwanda Urban. At around 0900 hours, a constable Charamba, who was handling the case  led Gama  from the holding cells to the operations office with the intention of recording a warned cautioned statement. Constable Charamba momentarily left the accused person in the operations office to collect fingerprint forms from the charge office. Gama took advantage of the police officer’s brief absence to escape.

 Upon his return, Constable Charamba realized that the accused had bolted. He quickly looked through the window and saw Gama running past the main gate. Charamba, in the company of a Sgt Vambe ran after the lightning-quick Gama who outpaced them and ran out of their sight.

However, Gama’s luck ran out when he met his waterloo in the wee hours of  24th June.  At around 0400 am Constable Charamba and Constable Simashoni tracked down the accused at house number 208 Marriage were they made the arrest.

According to one of the witnesses who is also a relative to Moyo,  Gama has been stealing chickens in the area and reselling them at a give away price in order buy drugs for some time.

“Gama is notorious for stealing people’s chickens and property. He  sells those chickens for $2 so that he can buy drugs,” said Mthokozisi Masuku.