"it was not true that a vehicle had turned into a coffin"

Vår pålitligaste källa för nyheter om landet vi bor i rapporterar om hur befolkningen i Chipata tror att det varit häxkraft i farten:

Chipata Taxi Driver Puzzles the local community
November 20, 2008

Police in Chipata had a tough time to control a crowd which besieged the police station this morning after word went round that a taxi which was impounded by police was later found with a coffin placed on top.

Scores of people went to the police station as early as 07 hours to have a glimpse of the coffin which was said to have been placed on top of a vehicle.

One of the residents, Charles Phiri, said the driver of the said taxi was detained after the vehicle he was driving was impounded by police but later on, the detainee disappeared from the cell.

Mr. Phiri who allegedly saw the coffin said that police were shocked to discover that the driver was not in the cells and when they checked where they had placed a driving license which was confiscated from him, it was also not there.

He noted that the continued search for him by police led to the discovery of the coffin which was allegedly placed on top of a vehicle.

But Eastern Province Police Commanding Officer, Mary Chikwanda, said it was not true that a vehicle had turned into a coffin.

Ms. Chikwanda said the coffin in question was used by police from the traffic section to carry bodies of people who died in Road Traffic Accidents ( RTAs ).

She said the coffin was always being kept at the police station but officers just forgot to take it to the place where it was always kept, when they moved it outside.

But some residents interviewed who were still moving about around the police station by mid-day, did not agree with Ms. Chikwanda, arguing that it was not true that police were keeping the coffin for the purposes of carrying bodies of road traffic accident victims.

They wondered how police would carry more that one body from an accident scene using one coffin if it was true that the coffin was being kept for that purpose.

ENDS/SM/PK/ZANIS.

Categories: Rural News

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