UPND cadres deny killing PF rival

TWO suspected UPND cadres yesterday denied killing a PF rivMal last year, claiming prosecution witnesses were picking on them because of political affiliation.

The duo told High Court judge Chanda Mwamba that all prosecution witnesses accused them because they were from opposition.

This is in a matter in which James Banda (meno meno) and Fabian Mwanza (junior mbuzi), both 27, are alleged to have killed Steven Kalipa on April 2, 2017 after a failed UPND rally in Kanyama near Mbasela market.

It is alleged that one of the accused persons was found with a sharp metal instrument round his waist.

Testifying in his defence, a smiling Mwanza told the court that he did not know anything about the death of Mr Kalipa.

Mwanza was repeatedly admonished by prosecution lawyer to stop smiling as the charge he faced was a serious one.

He said the prosecution witnesses were PF cadres and that he knew them from Matero and that they chose to link him to the death of Mr Kalipa only because he was from the opposition.

Mwanza told the court that on the night before the incident, he had been to a church overnight and only returned the next morning and thereafter went straight to attend a rally within Kanyama from 06:00 hours to 7:00hours.

He said he decided to leave the said rally and went straight home where he reached between 08: 00hours and 08: 30hours and never left the house that day.

Mwanza testified that on April 26 2016, he was arrested for the offence of possessing offensive weapons and that while in custody for that offence and to his surprise, he was also charged with murder of Mr Kalipa.

“On April 26 2017, I was charged with a case of being in possession of offensive material. Police had never looked for me for an offence of murder until sometime in May when they took me from the cell where I was being held and subjected me to an identification parade where there were a lot of accused persons,

“To my surprise, police officers took me and said I was being charged with murder of Steven Kalipa, the officers did not explain to me until today. There is nothing I know in relation to the murder of Steven Kalipa,” Mwanza claimed.

Mwanza denied ever being at Mbasela market on the material day and asked whether he was able to identify the murder weapon as shown to him, he said he was seeing it for the first time in court.

And Banda also denied ever being anywhere near Mbasela market or ever seeing the murder weapon.

He said prior to being accused of murdering Mr Kalipa, he was a busy man that spent the whole day at Soweto market where he worked as a call boy.