The family went on a rampage last week, digging the yard of
a house in Chinhoyi where the dead man used to rent with his family before his
arrest. They were searching for his loot but called it off after going on a a
wild goose chase.
The girl’s father, Vincent Matope Gavi, was arrested and
convicted for robbery in 2008 together with two accomplices after robbing a
foreigner of US dollars and South African rands and died in prison eight years
later and was buried in Rafingora in 2016.
His brother, Mr Nomore Gavi, confirmed the family had given
up the digging as they now seek to consult a self-styled prophet on the way
forward.
“We are still convinced that the money is still somewhere
in that the place as directed by the late through his daughter, Melissa and
also confirmation by a local prophet,” he said.
Mr Gavi who still believes the loot was stashed at the
house and claimed the spirit of his dead brother was looking over his family
and he believed the daughter was channelling the spirit.
He added that the difficulties in locating the money could
have been as a result of the presence of the police office whom he said were
previously said by the prophet as a barrier to progress.
The daughter, Mellisa Mutandwa, accompanied by Nomore and
other family members last Wednesday went to the house near Chikonohono Clinic,
apparently in a trance, where she started scrounging the ground searching for
the buried fortune.
Upon realising the family was digging, the owner of the
house, Ms Anna Liwanga Lukupa, restrained them as it was dark, but the group
defied her and continued searching for the loot before Ms Lukupa alerted the
police, leading to the arrest of the family.
Speaking to The Herald, the deceased’s widow, Nelia
Mutandwa, said she did not doubt what the spirit said, saying her daughter was
still a toddler when her husband was arrested.
“She then came here in the trance and started digging in
search of the said money in company of her uncle Nomore Gavi who is also my
late husband’s brother. I was then informed that my daughter, brother-in-law
and other family members who had accompanied her were arrested by the police
for unlawful entry,” she said.
As a family, she added, they had respected the dead’s
spirit by searching for the money.
Mellisa also told the family that her father had bought
several properties before his arrest which he would reveal to the family when
his spirit visits the family again
He said after the first incident, they later engaged Ms
Lukupa over the said hidden fortune for them to continue with the search.
Mellisa Mutandwa who spent a night at the police cells for unlawful entry
following the hullabaloo, told The Herald that she did not know how she had
walked from her home to the were the loot is said to be stashed, as she was
possessed.
“I only remember waking up from what I feel was a dream,
having destroyed part of a maize feed as they say I was looking for the money.
My mother told me that my late father’s spirit had spoken through me directing
the where the money was,” she said.
The family had earlier been told by a local self-styled
prophet that the issue would attract media and police attention. By Thursday,
the home where the loot is believed to have been stashed was heavily guarded by
members of the police while efforts to locate the fortune had yielded no
results by yesterday.
Provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Margaret Chitove
professed ignorance over the matter and referred all questions to Assistant
Commissioner Paul Nyathi who could not be contacted yesterday on whether the
state would confiscate the loot once found but some police officers at
Chemagamba Police Station confirmed the incident and said the search had yielded
nothing. Herald
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