A BINGA man shocked the courts last week when he claimed he escaped from police custody after officers had threatened to throw him in a 300m deep pit for his crimes. Tinashe Mungazi Own Correspondent
Cephas Nyoni of Ben Sibanda’s homestead in Masali village under Chief Pashu in Binga, who had been arrested for robbery, pleaded guilty to a charge of escaping from lawful custody when he appeared before provincial magistrate Portia Mhlanga. He was sentenced to 15 days in prison.
“Your honour, I escaped from custody after the police officers at the station had threatened to throw me into a 300m deep pit for my crimes,” he claimed.
“What frightened me the most was when they said I would never be seen again, so I fled to save my life, as I did not want to be thrown into the pit.”
The court heard that on October 29 2014, Nyoni was arrested by police officers in Kamativi and taken to the station for a case of robbery, where he was detained in the cells overnight.
The following day at around 9am, he asked to be escorted to the toilet. However, while the police officer was handcuffing him, Nyoni hit the cop with a fist on the right shoulder, pushed another, who was at the gate of the holding cells, violently forced his way out and escaped.
The police officers pursued him, but failed to catch him as he jumped a fence and disappeared in the bush. A manhunt for Nyoni was launched in the district, leading to his arrest on November 6 in Hwange.
Onias Nyathi prosecuted.
