Wanted… Lazarus Shaduka
Windhoek
Fugitive businessman Lazarus Shaduka has been on the run for over three years now following his conviction in 2012 for the murder of his wife, this despite the reward offered to any person with information that could lead to his arrest having been increased from N$20 000 to N$100 000.
Deputy Police Commissioner, Edwin Kanguatjivi, who is the head of NamPol’s public relations division, informed the media on Sunday that the police have been seriously looking into Shaduka’s case, but so far no progress has been made.
“We have not yet made a breakthrough or progress in connection with fugitive Shaduka’s arrest or whereabouts up to now. But we are hard at work to track him down. Fugitive Shaduka is a real concern to us at NamPol and the nation at large,” the deputy commissioner said.
Shaduka slipped into Angola over three years ago via Oshikango border post, a mere three hours after he was sentenced in the Supreme Court on December 13, 2012, where his culpable homicide conviction by the High Court was overturned and substituted with a murder conviction, accompanied by a 20-year jail term.
Shaduka, who was previously employed as property manager at the Windhoek Municipality, is wanted for murdering his wife Selma Shaimemanya in 2008 in their home in Klein Windhoek. He reportedly shot her in the back, which was the conclusion of a volatile relationship characterised by domestic violence.
To date the efforts of the police in tracking him down have borne little fruit.
The police had earlier offered N$20 000 to anyone who revealed Shaduka’s whereabouts, but that did not attract any informants.
The police last year increased the reward to N$100 000. In 2013 the police even put up posters in Angola in a bid to trace him and Interpol Namibia put up a notice on their website requesting member countries for cooperation or information leading to his arrest.
It has been rumoured that Shaduka fled to Zimbabwe at the time the reward was N$20 000.
Deputy Commissioner Silvanus Nghishidimbwa last December said that when the police increased the reward to N$100 000, some people came forward with information, but none could lead to the apprehension of Shaduka.
Last year Inspector Slogan Matheus from the police public relations division said the reward was increased to serve as an added incentive to motivate and encourage people to give information.
The police chief Lieutenant-General Sebastian Ndeitunga felt the N$20 000 reward was no longer an adequate incentive for people to volunteer information in the matter. Shaduka had “been on the run for too long now”, he said.
“Yes, we are confident that more people will come forward, because in as far as crime prevention and combating is concerned, the Namibian people have been helpful on that front, therefore the reward will serve as an added incentive to encourage more people to come forward with information about the whereabouts of the fugitive Shaduka,” he had said then.