admin
Osbert Chibanda (29) and an unidentified accomplice we-re gunned down in Glen Norah on Wednesday night while fleeing from the police.
The third man managed to escape.
Two other suspects, Carrington Mutambarika (18) and Tonderayi Makuya (21), were arrested in Budiriro on the same day after allegedly robbing a cabman they had hired from the city centre to Sunningdale.
Harare provincial police spokesperson Inspector James Sabau confirmed the death of the two suspects at around 9pm in Glen Norah B.
ROBBERY
He said one of the suspects hired a taxi from Queen Elizabeth Hotel to Sunningdale.
On arrival, Insp Sabau said, the suspect asked the driver to stop.
“Suddenly two male adults pounced on him from the darkness and ordered the driver to lie on the back seat. The dri-ver was later dumped in Cranborne.
“They (robbers) took his cellphone, US$120 and sped off with the vehicle,” Insp Sabau said.
A report was made at Hatfield Police Station and police systems were activated. Police detectives spotted the stolen vehicle along Simon Mazorodze Road.
They ordered the robbers to stop, but they sped off.
“A high speed chase followed and the suspects drove opposite Boka Auction Floors, where they made a U-turn and drove along Simon Mazorodze Road before turning into High Glen Road.
“The detectives fired some warning shots, but they (the robbers) accelerated,” he said.
Police then shot the wheel of the vehicle and it veered off the road before it rammed a pre-cast wall..
“One of the accused jumped off the vehicle scaled some pre-cast walls and escaped but Osbert Chibanda (29) and another unknown person were shot dead,” he said.
Police said another group of four suspected robbers hired a taxi at Tipperary nightclub in the city to Mbare before they robbed the driver of his vehicle at gunpoint.
The driver, police said, lost his cellphone, the car and US$150 to the robbers who then dumped him in Waterfalls.
However, police investigations led to the arrest of two of the suspects Mutambarika and Makuya at a nightclub in Budiriro.
Still on the same day, another taxi driver lost his vehicle to another suspected robber that had hired him from Mbuya Nehanda Street to Marimba Shopping Centre.
The driver also lost US$6 and a cellphone after the man threatened to shoot him with a pistol.
On Thursday last week at around 1:30am another taxi man was robbed of his car by a man who had hired him from corner Julius Nyerere and Robson Manyika to Sunningdale.
Inspector Sabau appealed to taxi drivers to put in place systems that guard against robbers especially if hired after hours.
The rate at which taxi robberies are increasing in the city now calls for police to take a robust approach to curb such cases and save the lives of innocent people who are providing an important transport service in the city.
Online Reporter