THE dream of wearing a military uniform turned into a nightmare for 16 youths in Kabwe after a veteran Zambia Army officer and his partner in crime allegedly marched them straight into a scam instead of service.
At the centre of the con is Warrant Officer class one Thomas Somanje, 53, who has spent 27 years in the army and even doubled as an English teacher at the Army Training School.
But instead of teaching verbs and tenses, Somanje, fondly called ‘Mr Chewe’ by his victims, is accused of utilising the Queens language to talk his way to the bank through dubious means.
His partner in deception, Lloyd Phiri, 33, a former civilian worker under the Zambia Army, styled himself as ‘Mr Michi Mafula.’
Together, the two are said to have orchestrated Kabwe’s very own defence academy, charging hopeful recruits K6,000 a head for slots that only existed in their imagination.
One victim narrated the sob story.
“We found ourselves in Kabwe after a lady through her son told us that there were replacements in ZNS. However, we were told to pay K6,000 for them to facilitate our recruitment,” the victim narrated.
“After some time, we noticed nothing was happening and they kept telling us to wait for commissioning of cadets.”
Prime TV reports that not only did the youths hand over their parents’ hard-earned money, some even stocked up groceries for use at the training camp that never was.
Their only parade ground turned out to be house number 48 in Chowa, where police later found them camped, waiting for orders that would never come.
The grand march to nowhere collapsed on Friday last week when Chowa Police received a tip-off.
By Monday, the scammers had been smoked out, thanks to their trusted taxi driver who, instead of driving them, drove the information to the police.
When officers searched Somanje, he was allegedly found with enough forged application forms that are reported to be distributed to his victims.
Central Province commanding officer Charity Munganga warned the public not to fall victim to such scam.
“If ZNS, Zambia Army or Zambia Police are recruiting, no one is going to ask for money from you because it’s the government that is training you. So in this case, those guys have stolen from you,” Munganga told the victims.
Now Somanje and Phiri are locked behind bars as authorities continue with investigations.
By George Musonda
Kalemba September 10, 2025
