Police in Mwinilunga District have apprehended a suspect for stealing 3000 meters copper service cables valued at k330,000.00 belonging to the Rural Electrification Authority (REA).
According to North Western Province Deputy Commissioner of Police Dr. Fred Mulenga, the arrest follows the report of theft made by Chris Munyat an employee of REA indicating service cables where stolen by unknown people.
Dr. Mulenga said incident occurred between Tuesday 19 hours and Wednesday 06 hours at Kasangezhi primary school Mwinilunga District where they were kept.
He said acting on the report police instituted investigations.
He said on Thursday morning around 02 hours police received a tip of from reliable source that some buckets containing copper cables were loaded on the power Tools bus at Mwinilunga main bus station
“Without any hesitation police rushed to the aforementioned station where eight 20liter buckets, one Black suit case and a laptop bag containing naked copper wires were recovered from the boots of Power Tools bus Zhong Thong by make registration number AIB 9867 black and yellow in colour,” said Dr. Mulenga.
He said in the process of searching, a passenger namely Joe Chalanta aged 33 of Kitwe Town sneaked from the bus and started running away but that police gave Chase and managed to apprehend him about 500 meters away from the bus station.
He said upon searching him he was found with a cable striper(knife), gloves,05 bus tickets and some naked copper wires in his black bomber jacket and revealed that he was not alone but with other five male persons.
“He then willfully led the police to the scene where the insulators of the cables in question were burnt from,” he said.
He said Investigations are still under way, targeting the apprehension of the four other suspects still at large.
