Victoria Kaapanda
OSHAKATI – A strong contingent comprising family members, relatives, schoolmates and friends of a Unam student killed recently in Ongwediva, yesterday stood opposed to her alleged killer being granted bail.
Paulus Nghipulenga (27) appeared in the Oshakati Magistrate’s Court yesterday, following the brutal killing of his alleged girlfriend Helao Gideon Hamuteta (23), a third year student at Unam.
Nghipulenga is accused of having killed Hamuteta on February 17.
The court was packed to the rafters yesterday, with hordes of supporters of the slain student demanding that no bail must be granted to the accused because of the seriousness of the case.
Supporters sang mourning hymns as they demonstrated in front of the court to make their opposing of bail noted.
Speaking to New Era, Unam student Maria Shihepo explained that she and her fellow students were deeply saddened by the killing of their former schoolmate.
Shihepo described Helao as a disciplined child, who laughed with everyone, and who did not deserve to die in this fashion.
“We want him [Nghipulenga] in jail forever,” said Shihepo.
The deceased’s uncle, Thomas Hamuteta, said Nghipulenga has hurt the entire family with the barbaric act he stands accused of.
He said the deceased’s parents are in retirement and putting her through school was a struggle.
“She was sent to school with Omahangu money, it is painful. She is so young and her family believed she was going to assist everyone moving forward. Now her life has been cut short,” the sad uncle said.
According to family members, Hamuteta died after being stabbed several times and her throat slit with a pocket knife at her home behind Unam’s Hifikepunye Pohamba campus.
It is alleged the suspect threatened Hamuteta via text messages that he would kill her. He then travelled from Windhoek a few days before the incident.
He allegedly tried to hang himself with shoelaces but they snapped. That was before he handed himself over to the police officers stationed at the Oshiko roadblock in Ongwediva.
One of the victim’s aunts said a family member that was close to Hamuteta noticed that the late had been arguing with someone over the phone.
Hamuteta herself has however never opened up about her troubled relationship to her family.
The state, represented by prosecutor Amutenya Eden, objected to the accused being granted bail on the ground that it was not in the public interest and because the offence is of a serious nature.
Magistrate Toini Shilongo postponed the matter to 29 May this year for further investigation. She remanded Nghipulenga in custody.