A POLICE officer testified at the Lusaka High Court, revealing that the late 10-year-old Chikondi Banda’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
Frizel Sikalubi informed Judge Mwape Bowa that, during scene reconstruction, the accused, Nalukui Akafekwa, confessed to striking the child’s head with a stone.
Akafekwa is charged with the murder of Banda on March 17, 2023, having abducted him near his school and demanding a ransom for his release.
Testifying before Judge Mwape Bowa, Officer Sikalubi presented evidence from MTN and Airtel records, including call logs, indicating that Akafekwa had sent a ransom message to the boy’s aunt, Elizabeth Chishimba, demanding K12,000.
Sikalubi stated that the accused was apprehended at a friend’s house, attempting to discard the communication phone in the police van. During scene reconstruction, Akafekwa led the police to the deceased’s school and, later, to the maize field behind Emmasdale police station, where he admitted to ending the child’s life with a stone to the head.
“The accused said he hit the deceased with a stone on the head. He (Akafekwa) said he sent a message to his family demanding a ransom as the boy was intelligent enough to give him the number of his aunty, and when he sent a ransom message, the phone shut down because it had a low battery,” Sikalubi narrated.
He revealed that, according to Akafekwa, he went home to charge his phone after the murder.
Sikalubi mentioned the presence of street cameras near the crime scene on Shekisheki road, obtaining footage for investigation. Post-mortem results from State pathologist Dr. Luchenga Muchelenganga confirmed the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head due to injury.
The cross-examination is scheduled for February 12, 2024.
By Mwaka Ndawa
Kalemba, January 30, 2024.
