Eenhana
Four men, including a school principal, were arrested on Monday after they allegedly stole 19 bags of cement from a road construction company that belongs to a Chinese national. They appeared in court yesterday for theft. The incident reportedly occurred on Monday at around 23h00 at Onakalunga village in the Eenhana Constituency of Ohangwena Region. According to information provided by the police, the principal at Exwa Primary School near Eenhana arranged with two workers employed at the construction site to buy bags of cement from them at a low price.
Wilbard Shitaatala, 37, allegedly drove to the site at around 23h00 to collect 19 bags of cement, worth N$1900 and a water pump machine, worth N$5000.
Iitumba said the cement bags and a Honda GX 16 were already placed outside the construction site, ready to be picked up by the school principal, who apparently wanted to hide his criminal intentions under the cover of the darkness.
“Shitaatala drove straight to the site, where the construction materials are kept at the main road of Eenhana and Onakalunga, but when he saw police movement at the site he drove away,” said Ohangwena regional police spokesperson Sergeant Kuume Abner Iitumba. Iitumba said the police followed Shitaatala to his homestead in Onakalunga, where they arrested him with the incriminating evidence. Shitaatala and his co-accused, Mbamba Shashipapu (27), Linus Nahinda (23) and Michael Festus (age unknown) appeared in the Eenhana Magistrate’s Court yesterday on a charge of stealing cement bags and a water pump.
Sources told this reporter that the school principal seems to have bought cheap bricks from the construction workers before, as he already has some bricks at the house he is busy constructing. Iitumba could not establish how much the suspects sold the cement and the water pump for, that they allegedly stole from the construction site.