By Judith Nyuke
Former Agriculture deputy minister, Douglas Karoro, has been acquitted of allegations that he stole Grain Marketing Board inputs intended for distribution to the needy in Mbire district.
The former legislator along with GMB assistant manager Lovejoy Ngowe were both charged with fraud.
Karoro was aqcuitted by Regional Magistrate Taurai Manuwere after a full trial.
During the trial, Karoro represented by Admire Rubaya requested an acquittal arguing that the State failed to link him to the offence and that he was merely a victim of name-dropping by the actual thieves of the inputs.
Karoro also accused his political rivals of fabricating the allegations to remove him from the race to represent Mbire in the 2023 harmonized elections.
“The 1st Accused (Karoro) was clear from the word go that he was not in Mushumbi on the days in question and he was not involved in the alleged collection of the maize seed.
“The Accused was clear that because he is a politician there are people who would name drop his name and get these inputs in circumstances where he would not have been involved at all,” Rubaya said.
The State failed to prove that Karoro received 5 000 vegetable combo kits from Valley Seeds Private Limited intended for GMB Mushumbi under the Presidential Inputs Programme, but converted them for personal use.
It was further alleged that to cover their tracks, Karoro and Ngowe instructed inputs’ clerk Honest Nyathi to falsely document the consignment misleadingly indicating it had been received and dispatched.
The State also failed to prove that the alleged fraud caused GMB a loss of approximately US$25 000.
