About 38 people from Zidana village in Inkosi Kwataine in Ntcheu district are in the hands of police for allegedly destroying the property of Nsipe parish.

Police spokesperson in Ntcheu Jacob Khembo has confirmed of the development, saying the incident happened yesterday.

According to Khembo, the villagers went on rampage destroy church properties.

He said the villagers and the church are at loggerheards over land that has existed since 2018 even through the court ordered that the land where these people are encroaching and farming belongs to the Catholic Church.

In November last year, Bishop Peter Adrian Chifukwa, for diocese of Dedza, closed the small hospital in Nsipe which is owned by the church because of the disagreements with the people around the hospital regarding the same place.