FOUR church leaders have been arrested for allegedly swindling over K400 million from farmers in Mpongweon the pretext of supplying them with fertiliser.
Mpongwe District Commissioner Rasford Bulaya confirmed this in an interview on January 14.
“Two pastors and two elders are in custody over the swindling of farmers in Mpongwe. They collected money for the supply of fertiliser as a way of supplementing Government’s effort to promote agriculture in the area,” he said.
He said the clergymen supplied only two truckloads of Compound D fertiliser to a few farmers.
Mr Bulaya said the four, who are believed to be running a non-governmental organisation, are remanded in police custody in Luanshya pending further investigations.
Meanwhile, Mr Bulaya has said that Government distributed fertiliser to farmers in Mpongwe as early as October 2010.
He said farmers are now able to adequately plan for their farming activities.
He said government’s Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) has enhanced agriculture production in the district.
“We are happy with Government’s commitment in the distribution of FISP as this will enhance national food security,” he said.
Mr Bulaya has also said that 75 percent of rural electrification programmes have been achieved in the district.
He said almost all palaces have been electrified.
In phase one of the programme, Chieftainess Malembeka and Chieftainess Lesa’s palaces were electrified. In the second phase Chief Machiya’s palace was electrified.
Only Chief Mwinuna’s palace is yet to be connected to the power grid.
Mr Bulaya said Kanyenda Basic School, which is about 10kms from Mpongwe clinic, has also been electrified.
Mr Bulaya said other areas will be electrified this year.
He also said a basic school is being constructed to ease the pressure for school places at Ibenga High School and Mpongwe High School.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
Bashimapepo. Yangu umusebanya. These people are just too greed. May be Archbishop Joe Imakando can teach them one or two things about how to extract tithes from their followers instead of fleecing them on fertiliser.
which church is this Mr Bulaya..?sad to note that..they must face the wrath of the law..
a stiff punishment is requite to people pretending to be working for God When thier doings are bad, thanks for nabbing them
Is this reprting or what? These guys can’t even give details like name of the organisation so that more people are not defrauded, name of church, location of church, perpatrators’ names etc… I expect news to have details. this is news for dull chaps and grade seven ba fikala!!!!!
The most prominent church in Mpongwe is Baptist. So…………a case of wolves dressed in sheepskin!
Unless it was the Catholics, Zambia Daily will not tell you the name of the Church involved.