Councilor’s defilement case enters defence

The trial of Chibanja Ward councillor Charles Mlogera, who is accused of defiling three girls, resumed on Monday with a taxi driver testifying that the girls were under pressure to implicate the politician.

The defence paraded two witnesses, starting with the councillor who pleaded not guilty despite admitting giving the girls a lift from Chibanja on August 8 2015.

“I released one of them in the same location before dropping the remaining two near Mzuzu Metro Shop,” he said.

Tempers flared during cross-examination when police prosecutor Betty Msowoya said Mlogera had communicated with the girls prior to the trip.

But Charles Ngulube, a taxi driver who operates from various pubs in the city, told the court that he picked two girls and two men from a drinking joint on the said night.

He explained: “I dropped the men at Viyele Rest House [in Luwinga] before taking the young girls to Chibanja in the wee hours of August 9 2015.

“I overheard the girls complaining that their parents had personal issues with Mlogera and that is why they were being forced to implicate him,” he said. n