WINDHOEK - Abisai Sebele, the man Lukas Nepela Nikodemus claims borrowed his car on the day he allegedly shot two women to death and burned their bodies at a dumpsite near Pionierspark in Windhoek gave a complete different version to what Nikodemus narrated in his bail application when he testified before Windhoek High Court Judge Christi Liebenberg on Monday.

While Nikodemus claimed that Sebele borrowed his car on January 6, 2016, the day before the bodies of 29-year-old Johanie Naruses and 23-year-old Clementia de Wee were discovered by a security guard, the witness contradicted this, saying he borrowed the car on January 5, 2016. 

Nikodemus on Monday pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, one count of defeating or obstructing or attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice and one count of failing to lock away a firearm. 
He did not provide a plea explanation and put the onus on the state to prove all the allegations against him. When Sebele took the stand, he told the judge that he arrived at the house of Nikodemus during the day of January 5 and they spent the day there consuming beer. 

He further said, contrary to instructions Nikodemus gave his state-funded lawyer Mbanga Siyomunji that he slept at the house and early the next morning went to buy more beer to cure his “babalaas” (hangover). He further said, again contrary to what Nikodemus testified that De Wee spent the whole of January 05 with them and also slept there.

According to Sebele, the next day at around midday, Naruses called Nikodemus to fetch her and Nikodemus showed him the call and said he did not want the two girls he had relationships with at the same time to be at the same place, at the same time to avoid a clash. 

However, the witness testified, Nikodemus then went and fetched Naruses and they all sat together drinking beer. 
At one stage, he said, Naruses showed him a letter she drafted and he complimented on her command of the English language and gave her a hug where after Nikodemus got up from where he was sitting telling him not to try his wife. 

A heated argument punctuated by swearing at each other then erupted between them and Nikodemus put his right hand on his hip where he carried a pistol. Naruses then calmed Nikodemus down, Sebele said, and they all decided to go to a bar to play some pool. 

At the bar, Naruses and Nikodemus got into a scuffle, but it later calmed down and he went outside to speak to someone who asked him for money, Sebele further narrated to the court. He said that after a while, Naruses approached him and asked him for N$10 and the next thing he knew Nikodemus was next to him accusing him of calling his “wife” to give her money. 

Another heated argument punctuated by swearing erupted between them and when Nikodemus again put his hand on his hip where the pistol was, he told Nikodemus that he was done with his nonsense and was going home and that Nikodemus can shoot him in the back if he wishes. He went home and only saw Nikodemus again in the police station after he was also arrested in connection with the double murder. According to Sebele, when he saw Nikodemus, the latter told him through bars “You are innocent”. 

 He vehemently denied during cross-examination that he only arrived at the house of Nikodemus on January 06 or that he borrowed the car of Nikodemus on that day. He was also steadfast in his evidence that De Wee had spent the night in the room of Nikodemus.

The case continues on Thursday and Nikodemus will remain in custody at the Windhoek Correctional Services facility for trial awaiting inmates after Acting High Court Judge Petrus Unengu refused him bail last week Friday.
State Advocate Cliff Lutibezi is prosecuting.