Stolen car used in two separate robberies,  found parked outside owner’s house

A car that was stolen and used in two separate robberies on Monday and Tuesday in Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre has been found parked at the house of the owner, Tanveer Ahmed, southern region police publicist Nicolas Gondwa confirmed.

The vehicle, Nissan Tilda registration number BL 2432 was reported stolen three weeks ago in Limbe.

The vehicle was apparently involved in two separate robberies with the commercial city.

It was first spotted on Monday at Petroda (Malawi) Limited Head Office where K4.5 million was stolen and the company’s accountant, Ugandan national Mustafa Abdul Karim was shot dead.

Karima is said to have been shot when he was coming from the bank. Four men using the vehicle in question pounced on him as he was about to walk into his office.

The same car was also used in an lunch hour robbery on Tuesday at Shire Hardware along the Highway at Yiannakis in Limbe where K3.7 million also cashed from the bank was stolen as the cash was being moved into his office.

Meanwhile, the Police have said the robbery, which took place Tuesday night at First Merchant Bank Livingstone Towers Branch in the city, where about K100 million was stolen, was an inside job.

The robbers were dressed in FBM uniform and used the access code to open the door leading to the room where the money was being recounted.

In their operation, armed robbers also shod dead a police officer and injured another one as they stole the money.

After opening the door, one of the four men grabbed Mvula, snatched his gun and shot him three times in the head and leg while theothe cop was shot in the stomach and chest. They then left the room with boxes containing the money and jumped into an unidentified saloon car and drove off.

The cop , identified as Sergeant Patrick Mvula, has since been laid to rest in his home district Zomba.

The incidents happened barely few days after the Inspector General of Police (IG) Paul Kanyama warned that the honeymoon for armed robbers was over.

On Tuesday, an official from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China warned that Chinese investors may decide to relocate to neighbouring countries due to insecurity in the country.

According to Wang Jiaxin Hudson, the Embassy’s Economic and Commercial Counsellor, increased cases of violence in Malawi are threatening the Chinese investors.

His remarks followed an robbery attack on Chinese nationals working for the Fifth Bureau of the China Railway at Area 9 in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe last week Thursday and went away with K5 million cash.

About four armed robbers followed a car carrying a Chinese nationals from a bank up to the entrance of a compound where they shot at the car’s petrol tank and stole the money.

In the past year alone, about eight Chinese investors including medical doctors have been targeted by robbers and had their valuables stolen, according to the official.

“Insecurity in Malawi is getting out of hand. What we are seeing in Malawi’s roads are a lot of traffic police officers and not armed cops who would scare thieves away.

“Our hope is that government and the Inspector General of Police will do their best to improve the security to bring back investors confidence,” said Hudson.

He said the Chinese community in the country is concerned increased cases of robberies, noting that insecurity may erode further the confidence of many investors.

“Every time a Chinese national is robbed, the police just tell us that they have made arrests and are investigating the matter, but we have never been told how the cases conclude,” he stated.

He also observed that robbers are hampering the economic growth of the country as no investor would want to go to a country where there is insecurity.