Police in Central Province have arrested a 39 year old suspected mental patient for allegedly murdering a five months old baby.

Meanwhile, Police in Lusaka have arrested a 37 year old man for allegedly administering suspected poisonous substance to his one year 11 months old son after an argument with the victims mother.

In a statement Thursday, Police Spokesperson Esther Mwaata Katongo identified the suspected mental patient as Martha Nyambose, saying she murdered the baby on Wednesday morning after the parents had gone in the field, leaving the child alone in the house.

She further disclosed that upon arrival, the victim’s parents found the child dead with bruises on the chest, back and a bleeding nose.

“Police in Central Province have arrested a suspected mental patient identified as Martha Nyambose aged 39 years for allegedly murdering a five months old baby in Edmond Mumba village in Chitambo District. The incident is reported to have happened on March 21, 2018 around 06:10 hours while both parents of the victim had gone to the field leaving the baby alone in the house. Upon returning home, they found the child dead with bruises on the chest, back and also bleeding from the nose,” she stated.

“The suspect who lives in the same village, about 500 meters away from the victim’s parents’ house was arrested from the scene of murder. The body has been buried and the grave marked ‘awaiting exhumation and postmortem’.”

And in a related development, Katongo disclosed that police in Lusaka had arrested a 37 year old man identified as Simenja Miyoba for allegedly administering suspected poisonous substance to his one year 11 months old son after an argument with the victims mother.

She stated that the incident happened on Wednesday around 18:00 hours in Makeni area.

“Police in Lusaka have arrested a 37 year old man identified as Simenja Miyoba for allegedly administering suspected poisonous substance to his one year 11 months old male child after an argument with the victims mother who is the suspects girlfriend. The incident happened on March 21, 2018 at around 18:00 hours in Makeni area,” she stated.

Katongo disclosed that the suspect took the victim to a nearby bush where he gave him the suspected poisonous substance after an argument with the mother.

“Brief facts of the matter are that the suspect who is the father to the victim took him to the nearby bush after an argument with the mother and allegedly gave him suspected poisonous substance. The mother to the victim followed the suspect and managed to get back the child whom she rushed to the nearby clinic where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.The suspect was apprehended by members of the public and he is currently detained in Police custody. The body of the deceased is in UTH mortuary awaiting postmortem,” stated Katongo.