adminNyore Madzianike Senior Reporter
A man masquerading as a Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operative, stationed at the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, was caught in possession of 22 local and 5 Zambian registered sim cards.
Lovemore Lunga (48) is said to have been in the habit of using Cabinet ministers’ names to dupe people using the EcoCash platform.
He would promise to facilitate pieces of land to his victims.
Lunga was arrested after allegedly attempting to dupe an unsuspecting farmer who was looking for a piece of land, after passing himself off as Agriculture Minister Perrance Shiri.
He appeared before Harare magistrate Victoria Mashamba, who remanded him in custody to today for bail ruling. The State led by Mr Lancelot Mutsokoti opposed the granting of bail saying he was a flight risk.
Mr Mutsokoti said Lunga gave five addresses where his girlfriends stay.
When he was arrested, he gave No.63 Odzi Road, Mabvuku, as his residential address, but it was proven the address does not exist.
After that he gave police an address in Mbare where his girlfriend Catherine Mangondo stays.
He also gave police addresses of his other girlfriends Refuge Kadira in Epworth, Anita Chatindivara in Kutama and another one in Mbizo, Kwekwe.
Mr Mutsokoti said this clearly showed that Lunga would abscond once granted bail.
In his bail application, Lunga said he was into kapenta trading and the Zambian lines were for business when he is in Kariba.
Circumstances leading to his arrest are that he called the complainant, who was not named in State papers, and told him that he could facilitate land for cropping through Minister Shiri’s office.
Lunga allegedly told the complainant that he needed 20 litres of fuel to travel to the plot and $450 to be deposited in his EcoCash before they can travel to the plot for allocation purposes.
It was when the complainant became suspicious and called the police, leading to Lunga’s arrest.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter