Wed, 28 Dec 2016 12:39:14 +0000
By Aaron Chiyanzo
A WOMAN was raped and a senior male pastor stripped naked for resisting attempts by a group of youths to demolish their house and church and take over their land.
The shocking and brutal attacks were reported to Rosedale Police and Plain View police stations in Lusaka West respectively but that the attackers had not yet been arrested.
The victims have now been advised by the police to report their case to Lusaka Province Police Commissioner.
Dorothy Lungu of Lusaka West and Vincent Lungu, a senior Pastor at Hope for Life Ministries in the same area were raped and stripped naked respectively by known youths after the two on separate occasions tried to stop the youths from demolishing structures on their
plots.
The victims in a walk-in interview at the Daily Nation yesterday complained bitterly at the lacksidal attitude at the authorities who appeared relactant to investigate the matter.
The plots on a piece of land that originally belonged to the Office of the President but given out to residents by the Ministry of Lands had brought about wrangles between the notorious youths believed to be Patriotic Front (PF) cadres and the new owners both of whom were claiming ownership of the land.
But Ms Lungu, disclosed that she was last Friday raped by the said gang around 09: 00 in the morning when she attempted to stop them from demolishing her newly built house.
Ms Lungu, however, said that the police had not made any follow up on the matter even although she had reported the matter to the nearest police post on time.
“Immediately after those cadres raped me, I run to the nearby church where I found that the pastor had a few minutes earlier been beaten up and stripped by the same cadres. The pastor advised that we split and report the incidences to different police posts because the cadres were then watching us from a distance and we didn’t want to alert them of our next action,” she explained.
Ms Lungu also explained that when she reported the matter to Rosedale Police post in Lusaka West. After obtaining a medical report at a local clinic and later UTH, the police told her to organise transport so that they could go on a man-hunt for the cadres.
Meanwhile, the senior pastor, who was stripped and beaten up Vincent Lungu, said that he was not surprised that the cadres had done that to him because they had for a long time threatened his life.
Rev. Lungu disclosed that earlier this year, he paid the gang leaders only identified as Situmbeko and Mulilo a sum of K2000 to make peace with them because they had terrorised the area for a long time.
He said that he also reported the attacks on his life to Plainview Police post behind Garden House Motel but that the police had still not been able to make any arrests.
Meanwhile, Zambia Police spokesperson Esther Katongo said that she was not aware of the incident.
