POLICE Officers Find Charms In Accident Victim’s Bag In Mazabuka ‘victim found with witchcraft charms and a live snake’

MAZABUKA police were on Wednesday astonished when the bag of a deceased accident victim was found with witchcraft charms and a live snake.

Confirming the incident, Southern Province police commissioner Brenda Muntemba said the man identified as Patrick Phiri died on the spot on Saturday after a road traffic accident between Lusaka and Mazabuka.

But the wife of the deceased identified him as Salamati Juma Saidi, a Tanzanian national. The police officers in Mazabuka found two different identity cards for the deceased – one Zambian NRC bearing the name Patrick Phiri and a Tanzanian identity card with the names Salamati Juma Saidi.

“We understand that at the time they took Phiri’s corpse into the mortuary, he grew long hair on the skin, lights went off and a lion was heard roaring by the attendant. And using his cell phone, we traced his wife from Kaunda Square in Lusaka who went to Mazabuka and when she got to the police she refused to have the bags opened as her husband had never opened it before,” Muntemba said.

She said when the bags were eventually opened by police officers, a skull, calabash with beads and a snake were found, prompting the police to call in a clergyman.

“Bishop Kenan Ndhlovu from the Latter Rain Global Church was called in and he prayed for the items. Amid a huge crowd that had gathered, the Bishop burnt the objects and the snake,” she said.

Muntemba said it was with divine intervention of prayer that made the man die and wondered what would have happened had the police officers opened the bag in the absence of the deceased’s next of kin.

“The sad part is that the lives of the police officers are in danger as we keep items of people and we do not open them. I’m happy that prayer intervened as we always start our day with devotions and prayer in all stations in the province,” said Muntemba.

And police sources in Mazabuka said the deceased roared like a lion when his body was being taken to the mortuary.

The man died on his way to Namibia for his business activities when the truck he was in overturned after the driver lost control.

“He died on the spot and his body was immediately rushed to Mazabuka district hospital and the bizarre incidents started after he was medically certified dead. The man identified as of Lusaka’s Kamwala township forced the police officers and nurses to flee for their dear life as the deceased repeatedly roared like a lion. This was after a police officer attempted to cover his head with linen on the way to the mortuary,” the sources said.

The deceased’s wife, Phonica Muleya, who had initially told police not to open the bags following advice from her late husband, regretted getting married to a foreigner whom she said did not open up whenever he was asked which part of Africa he hails from.

Muleya, who also confirmed that her late husband was a traditional healer, complained that he failed to introduce her to his relatives in the last four years that the couple had been married.

Muleya, 27 also revealed that her husband had warned her not to open the bag and a wooden box where the snake was found by police.

Posted by Editor on March 23, 2012. Filed under WEIRD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry