By knchile 
POLICE in Zimba have detained four men, including a camp agriculture committee (CAC) member, for allegedly defrauding three women of their Farming Input Support Programme (FISP) packs worth more than K76,000.
The CAC member has been named as Aswell Chikuni, 45, while the others are Tili Mukumbuta, 45, Mike Munsaka, 37, and Clever Simwimbu, 33.
They are suspected to have redeemed 66 50kg bags of both Urea and D-compound fertiliser and 11 10kg packages of maize belonging to three members of the Bwacha Bwaumbuluka Cooperative (BBC).
Southern Province acting police commanding officer Moono Namalongo said the four are accused of redeeming FISP packs of Eveness Wanki, 44, Tili Siazimbe, 37, and Sandra Hakayabu, 24, all valued at K76,340 without consent last month.
“The three learnt that their cooperative had started receiving codes for redeeming FISP packs, so they approached Chikuni to submit their codes.
“However, Chikuni informed them that they were not eligible to receive the FISP packs through that cooperative this farming season,” Mr Moono explained.
But after asking fellow cooperative members, the three were assured that their names were appearing on the list of beneficiaries and they reported the matter to police.
When Chikuni was summoned, he told police that the fertiliser and seed under BBC were redeemed and given to Mukumbuta, Munsaka and Simwimbu.