Midlands provincial police spokesperson, Inspector,
Emmanuel Mahoko confirmed the incident which occurred in Raylands suburb Gweru
on Thursday night. He said property was destroyed in the attempted arson attack
while all family members escaped unhurt.
“The suspect, Darlington Miti (42) has since surrendered
himself to the police and is now in custody. He is now facing attempted murder
charges and will appear in court soon,” he said.
Insp Mahoko said those who escaped the arson attack were
Miti’s wife Chipo Mafunda, her two children from a previous marriage, her
3-year child with Miti and two other family members.
“It is said Miti had a misunderstanding with his wife on
Wednesday night. He then left the house only to return home around 2am the
following morning armed with a five litre container full of petrol. He then
sprinkled the fuel around the house before setting the house on fire together
with the wife’s car which was parked outside,” he said.
When The Herald newscrew visited the house yesterday, Ms
Mafunda and other family members were busy cleaning the house while throwing
away some of the burnt property.
Ms Mafunda told The Herald that they were lucky to be alive
after the arson attack from her husband whom she described as a suicidal character.
She said Miti
committed the crime some weeks after he attempted to kill himself by consuming
poison.
“We have been having some problems in this marriage and
recently he wrote a suicide note and later consumed termite poison. We rushed
him to the hospital and he spent two weeks in the intensive care unit. He was
about to recover but still on medication,” she said.
Ms Mafunda said she is into some business and was fending
for the family but Miti was now accusing her of infidelity.
She said on the fateful day, he came home charging while
accusing her of seeing other men but without corroborating the allegations.
“He has for a long time, been threatening to kill me and
the kids while accusing me of infidelity but I would always ask him to provide
evidence because I knew I was clean. He was just insecure because I had become
the breadwinner for the family with my business ever since he lost his job some
few years back but he was still in denial,” she said.
Ms Mafunda said Miti left home on Wednesday night without
communicating where he was going only to come back home at around 2am the
following morning armed with some petrol.
“He then started throwing stones at our bedroom where I was
sleeping, damaging window panes before he sprinkled petrol on my car which was
parked outside and around the house. He then petrol-bombed the house through
the bedroom where our three-year-old girl was sleeping,” he said.
Ms Mafunda said she managed to rescue the minor in the
bedroom where the fire started before it spread into other rooms.
“Some neighbours then responded to the screams for help and
we managed to put out the fire but some of the property had already been
damaged,” she said. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment