Irate mob destroys property for child abduction suspect in Dowa
An angry mob destroyed property belonging to a child abduction suspect (name withheld) in Dowa, Malawi Police confirmed on Tuesday.
It was reported on Friday that a five year old girl, Monica Chunga, did not come back from school where she went and could not be traced.
However, rumour went round that the girl was being kept in the house of a certain woman residing at the Boma.
This forced a mob around the boma and surrounding villages to organize themselves and went to the suspect’s house where they vandalized property and closed the Lumbadzi- Dzaleka – Dowa Boma road on Monday.
Speaking in an interview with, Dowa Police Station’s Officer In Charge (OC), Deputy Commissioner of Police, Owen Maganga, said after receiving the complaints from the relatives of the child, police went to the house of the suspect where they searched the house for the child but could not find her.
This, however, did not satisfy the people who took the law into their hands and went on to vandalize the suspect’s property.
Maganga said police fired teargas to disperse the mob and rescued the suspect’s family property.
So far Police have arrested leaders of the fracas and are keeping the suspect in custody for security reasons and further questioning.
He urged communities in the district to avoid taking law into their hands as has been the case, saying that could solve the problem. He said instead, the people should work hand in hand with the police so that those involved in the abduction of the child should be arrested.
The OC said those who have been arrested will appear in court soon to answer different charges committed during the violence.
