A Second Year Computer Engineering Polytechnic Student, Blessings Nyondo who, on the new year’s eve was shot ten times by Malawi Police Officer has passed on at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital.
According to the information that Avantmalawi has gathered, Nyondo, who, on the night of his fate, was going for overnight prayers, has passed on with some of the bullets he suffered with still in his body.
The death of Nyondo has come few days after Malawi Police Service, through its Public Relations Officer, James Kadadzera, released a statement which put Nyondo in the wrong. According to Kadadzera, Nyondo was one of the criminals who robbed a certain woman at Kwacha roundabout in Blantyre and that the police shot to disable him, after that they dropped him at QECH.
However, an interview with the father of the deceased as well as an voice note of the deceased himself has revealed a totally different account of events altogether, as compared to the one that the Malawi Police Service allege to have happened.
Blessings said that on the said night, he was on his way to a cross over night at Pastor Ziba’s church wearing a suit. While around the roundabout ,he saw men behind and Infront of him. He also saw them attack a woman and come after him. They ruffled him up but somehow he managed to escape and saw an MBC car approaching. He stopped in front of the vehicle and as the men were still chasing him, he opened the front door and entered.
It was at this point that the MBC security officer and a police officer began to question him. They called him a thief. He told them he was not and asked them to take him to a police station so that it could all be cleared up there as his life was in danger. He was dismissed and told to get off. The police officer then pointed a gun at him and said, “you know I can shoot you?”
Fearing for his life, he alighted the vehicle and attempted to run. He heard a gunshot and fell to the ground but he was still conscious. The thugs who had been after him, began to touch his pockets and attempted to take off his wrist watch.
The men in the vehicle noticing that they may have shot the wrong person went to were he was. Blessings pretended to be unconscious as he was unaware what their intention was. He heard them debate: how does a thief wear a suit? one asked. The other said, some thieves look like this. Should we finish him off or take him to the hospital? They debated and after a while took him to Queens.
“They left me saying, “this is a thief”. They did not stay nor place me under any arrest. While there, I was ignored because of, I think, the police officer called me a thief. I was in pain and it was only when I asked some woman there for help that I got assisted”, continued Nyondo, in an almost inaudible voice.
Meanwhile, it has been discovered that Nyondo, despite Police in its statement claiming to have arrested him, they never put him on guard as is the case with any criminal.