BLANTYRE–Police in Blantyre Thursday arrested two suspects who were holed up for a week in the ceiling of Chichiri Shopping Mall in Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre.

Edna Ligowe, the Southern Region police spokeswoman, told MaraPost police finally decided to send officers up the ceiling. She identified the dare-devil robbers as Denis Chilemba, 23, and 25-year-old Kondwani Mwantani.

“We found two knives beside them and empty bottles and cans of food and drink,” she said.

The two robbers climbed up the ceiling last Friday through a women’s toilet. They removed ceiling panels and, using a rope, they climbed up. But the game was given away when alert guards, who had seen the strange men entering the women toilet, alerted police after noting they were taking too long in the toilet.

From then on, it became a cat-and-mouse game between the police and the suspects.

Ligowe said police recovered K18, 000 cash on them which the police suspected to have been stolen from one of the shops. She also said police believe the duo was easing themselves into some shops to steal food for they didn’t look famished when they were arrested.

The two were paraded before prying eyes of the media where Chilemba said “they had suffered a lot as there was too much heat up there”.
Looking a little confused Mwantani said he “just wanted to go home”.

But home is the last address the brothers-in-robbery can hope as Ligowe, the police publicist, said the two were going on full remand and would be charged with breaking into a building, armed robbery, possessing dangerous weapons, escaping lawful arrest and theft of money and material.

“They will go to court soon,” she said.

Chichiri Shopping Mall is Malawi’s largest shopping mall housing a number of local and international companies including phone companies Airtel and TNM and South Africa’s chain stores Shoprite, Game Stores and Supreme Furniture.

Read more: http://www.maravipost.com/malawi-politics/society/6115-2-suspects-holed-up-in-ceiling-flushed-out-after-a-week.html#ixzz1eiBDXC3I
The Maravi Post Maravipost.com