‘Robbers’, senior police officer killed in battle

About 20 vehicles full of armed policemen arrived at Vikindu and surrounded a house in which suspected gangsters were hiding. PHOTO | THE CITIZEN CORRESPONDENT

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Reports said that a top police officer in the anti-robbery unit, ASP Thomas Njuki, was also gunned down. He was heading his team to corner the gang armed with an assortment of automatic weapons.

Kibaha. Police killed several suspected gangsters in a gun battle which lasted for more than eight hours in Vikindu Village in Mkuranga District, Coast Region. Police were hunting down killers of four police officers at Mbande in Dar es Salaam few days ago.

Reports said that a top police officer in the anti-robbery unit, ASP Thomas Njuki, was also gunned down. He was heading his team to corner the gang armed with an assortment of automatic weapons.

Witnesses said the situation was tense in Vikindu from around 1.30am when the police officers surrounded the house in which the suspected bandits were holed up. When they ordered them to surrender, they started shooting. The law enforcers responded and the fire exchange lasted for more than eight hours.

Vikindu Village chairman Said Nguvumali said social activities ground to a halt with majority of the residents locking themselves in their houses in fear of being caught in the crossfire.

“No one dared open his or door as gunshots rent the air. The gang refused to surrender,” he said.

He said initially they though robbers had invaded one of the villagers’ home, but when the gunshots persisted they knew something more serious was going on.

Mr Nguvumali said the gang stayed undetected because Vikindu had been receiving a lot of land buyers and developers from Dar es Salaam.

“It was not easy for us to recognise them because a lot of new people come here everyday,” he said when asked why his leadership failed to recognise dangerous people living in the village. Sources from the village told The Citizen that police arrived at the house at around 1.30am yesterday and ordered the house occupants to come out. “But the people inside remained silent and police blasted the locks using their pistols. That was when we started hearing gunshots. It seems the gangsters had realised that the police were storming,” said a villager who refused to be named.

He noted that Commander Njuki was apparently the first to be shot.

“After their leader was shot, other policemen retreated and took cover. Whenever police officers shot, the gangsters also shot,” he said.

After noting that people inside had no intention of coming out willingly and that they had heavy weapons, the policemen called for reinforcement and Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) soldiers arrived.

Eyewitnesses said upon the arrival of the soldiers, people inside the house were ordered to release children who were crying.

“When the children were released, police asked them where their father was. They said he was hiding in the roof,” said another witness. -

That made the police to direct fire in the roof. One man descended from the roof but shot himself dead before he was arrested.

“That man arrived here yesterday from Kigoma and from his statements he seemed to be aware of the Mbande incident. We believe that he had come for a special mission,” he said.

Some villagers said they had for a long time suspected the house was a hideout of gangsters. Rumours had been doing the rounds of the village that an armed gang had rented it.

The villagers said the house belongs to a person currently in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Unconfirmed reports say that the owner of the house is a retired soldier.

 

Apprehension

All people living in the vicinity of the house were blocked from leaving their houses and those who had already left when the fighting started were not allowed to return until yesterday afternoon. People who work in Dar es Salaam from Melela, Vianzi, Pemba Mnazi and Mfuru had to stay home as well as they could not pass the village.

No one, including journalists and plainclothes policemen, were allowed within 150 metres of the house even after the gunshots stopped.

About 20 vehicles full of armed policemen arrived at the area in the morning and surrounded the house in which the suspected gangsters were hiding.

At around 8.22am, two fire tenders also arrived, ready to offer assistance.

Fingerprint experts arrived at the house at around 10.00am followed by a group of TPDF soldiers who arrived at around 10.28am. Vikindu East street chairman Mohamed Ismail, said four people — two men and two women — were arrested at the end of the gun fight. But later he said the number of arrested people rose to seven.

Reported by Julieth Ngarabali, Kalunde Jamal and Midraji Ibrahim