Court hears how body of 10-year-old boy was discovered in maize field

The Lusaka High Court heard on Tuesday that the Centre for Family Health Research in Zambia participant identity card found together with slain Chikondi Banda’s clothing, belonged to accused, Nalukui Akafekwa.

Meanwhile, a car washer, Dickson Ngoma, testified that Chikondi Banda’s body was in a decomposed state when he discovered it behind Emmasdale Police Station.

This is in a criminal matter Nalukui Akafekwa, a 24-year-old man of Garden Compound, is accused of killing Chikondi and dumping the body in a maize field in Emmasdale area on March 17, 2023.

Testifying before Lusaka High Court Judge, Mwape Bowa, Dr William Kilembe, project director of Center for Family Health Research in Zambia ( CFHRZ) stated that in March this year, he was approached by police officers who wanted information about the participant card and who it belonged to.

“A participant card was brought to me by the police, they told me the card was found together with the clothing of the victim in a disused toilet,” Kilembe said.

He explained that Akafekwa was a student for a research study on latent Tuberculosis.

Kilembe said he got permission from the sponsors of the research study, the University of Zambia Biomedics and the National Research Authority, for him to release the information about a student.

” I was given the reception file which has the locator file, the details of each participant address, phone number, date of completing and date of birth. The left side is the manual finger print. We made reference to the card and the ID and it showed Nalukui Akafekwa,” he said.

Another witness, Ngoma told the court that he discovered Chikondi’s body 30 metres from Emmasdale Police Station on March 21, around 09:00 hours .

This was when he was assisting a woman he knew as Bana Vanessa harvest maize from her garden just along the Bombay drainage.

“As I moved to pluck fresh cobs of maize,I noticed so many flies. When I moved closer, there was a foul smell, so my thought was that it was a dead dog. When I wanted to go to the other side, my heart kept telling me to check again. So when I moved closer, I saw a folded leg in a grey trousers and a black shoe.

“The body appeared really swollen and was with maggots. There were alot of flies and maggots on the stomach area,” he said.

He said he decided to call passersby who confirmed that it was a body of a boy aged about 10.

Ngoma said he reported the matter to police who secured the scene and picked the body at around 13:00 hours.

He said the body was identified to be of Chikondi Banda, by the victim’s grandmother.

At this point,the State applied for the court to visit the scene crime, which request was not objected to by the defence.

Judge Bowa adjourned trial to Friday for possible scene visit.

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