By Chisomo Phiri
Police in Dowa are keeping in their custody a 35-year-old Yotamu Fulatiya for allegedly killing Clinton Watson, 23, after Watson collected K90,000 from Fulatiya but failed to bring him fertilizer as promised.
Dowa Police Station Public Relations Officer(PRO) Sergeant Alice Sitima says the incident occurred during the night of Sunday.
Sitima explains that the earlier in December, 2023, Watson collected money amounting to K90,000 from Fulatiya, in agreement that he would give him a bag of fertilizer as he was one of the Affordable Input Program beneficiaries.
However, weeks went by without Watson showing up with the fertilizer.
On December 30, 2023 at around 19:00hrs, Fulatiya met Watson at Mwelero trading centre and their discussions did not go well.
Later, Fulatiya took Watson to his cousin’s house the suspect hit Watson’s neck with a blunt object and then he escaped.
The matter was reported to Dowa Police who rushed to the scene accompanied by medical personnel and found Watson lying dead with no any cut around his body.
Postmortem results established that the death was due to suffocation secondary to Hyoid bone Fracture and Trachea blockage.
Yotamu Fulatiya will appear before court soon, to answer the murder charge.
He hails from Mwelero village, Traditional Authority(T/A) Msakambewa in Dowa district.