Chronicle Editor
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Gwanda Correspondent
A 22-YEAR-OLD Filabusi man has been arrested for allegedly axing his five-year-old niece to death in a vicious unprovoked attack.
The long arm of the law caught up with Thokozani Sibanda of Montrose 4A Village under Chief Maduna who had been on the run since committing the gruesome murder about eight months ago.
He was not asked to plead when he appeared briefly before Gwanda magistrate, Miss Nomagugu Ncube facing murder charges.
Sibanda was remanded in custody to tomorrow.
Miss Ncube advised him to apply for bail at the High Court.
Prosecuting, Mr Takudzwa Mafudze said Sibanda struck Primrose Ndlovu with an axe on the neck on May 9 after she had been left in his custody by his sister, Ms Beauty Sibanda.
“On 9 May Ms Beauty Sibanda left her five-year-old daughter in the custody of her brother Thokozani Sibanda while she went to the shops. When she left Sibanda was chopping up maize stalks with an axe.
“He struck his niece on the neck before fleeing the scene. Upon her return Ms Sibanda found her daughter’s body lying in a pool of blood in a bedroom hut and her brother was nowhere to be seen,” said Mr Mafudze.
He said on December 25 police received information that Sibanda was at house number 63 in Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park Suburb. Police arrested him at the house.
@DubeMatutu
Bongani Ndlovu