9 members of one family in Lusaka’s George Township yesterday became the latest victims of an apparently well-orchestrated scheme of gassing people in homes at night.

The gassing of people with unknown chemicals began early last month on the Copperbelt, then spread to North-Western Province, and has now hit the capital city, with six families so far reporting.

A medical report dated February 9, 2020, given to her by the police, reads that the complainant was “subjected to have been poisoned with unknown chemical substance”. The house which was gassed is in the midst of four other houses. Some neighbours said the criminals had bright torches which they used for peering through the windows.

They ran away when they realised that some people were awake. The residents cheered when more police officers from the anti-robbery squad, famously known as C 5, arrived on the scene and entered the victim’s house for a short interview before advising them to give a statement to the police station. One of the victims, Patricia Banda, said five members of her family were choked with gas around 01:00 hours. Ms Banda said they are feeling much better except for the seven-year-old child, who is still taking medicines and milk after he was attended to at Safari Clinic. And 32 pupils at Lumanto Boarding School and nine residents of Chikabuke village in Lufwanyama have been gassed barely a week after 38 pupils from the same school were gassed. The Copperbelt is the axis of the gassing attacks.

The 41 gassing victims are admitted at Lufwanyama District Hospital. In the school incident, the pupils who were gassed said they got choked on Saturday night as the rains poured heavily. This is the second gassing incident at Lumanto Boarding School in seven days. Some parents have complained that the school has no security guard or perimeter fence to protect the pupils. The parents, who have gathered at Lufwanyama District Hospital to check on their children, have called on the police to intensify patrols in the area.

They commended the Zambia Forestry and Forest Industry Corporation for providing a truck which rushed the 32 pupils to hospital after the incident. In the other incident, two women and seven children of Chikabuke village are being treated after being gassed on Saturday night. The women said they saw men who climbed on the roof of their house and a chemical into the house, resulting in them being choked. Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary Bright Nundwe confirmed the incident in an interview yesterday. He has warned criminals behind the incidents that the law will catch up with them.

Minister of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo has said the police have deployed highly trained investigators to probe the matter. Mr Kampyongo, who was speaking on ZNBC Radio One Bemba programme called Kabusha, appealed to residents to cooperate with the police and help identify criminals by reporting suspicious characters in their communities to the police. “We are investigating these incidents and we will deal with the culprits severely even if it is found that they are politicians.

So, residents should stop attacking police officers, destroying property and meting out instant mob justice on suspects,” Mr Kampyongo said. He urged Lusaka and Central Province police commissioners to work together and reduce the number of checkpoints between Lusaka and Kabwe following complaints from motorists that they are too many.