By Rudo Saungweme
A former soldier, Elliot Piki, who lost in Zanu PF primary elections for Harare South stage managed abduction on 25 November, 2018.
Harare Post has learnt that Piki who claims to have been abducted by security agents was in custody of one of his girlfriends for reasons yet to be established.
Piki is known to be a compulsive philanderer. It is alleged that he was last seen on 25 November 2018 which compelled his wife Sibongile Sarukato to seek help from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHRL).The ZLHRL then filed a missing person report seeking an order compelling Zimbabwe authorities to investigate and account for the whereabouts of Piki.
Harare Post had it on good authority that Piki was expelled from Zimbabwe National Army after having an adulterous relationship with a junior officer’s wife. It is said that it had become Piki’s culture to bed junior officers’ wives and female junior officers.
According to ZNA regulation, an officer who is dismissed from the army on charges of that nature are stripped of any title or rank that he or she presently holds. As such, Piki left the army as an ordinary soldier. A senior ZNA officer told this publication that it is erroneous to refer Piki as a retired Colonel.
“The media and the public must just refer to him as Piki and not retired Colonel. Once an officer is dismissed on such charges, he ceases to a retired so and so,” said the officer.
Commenting on his twitter account, Kudzai Mutisi posted, “Elliot Piki was not an Army Boss, he was a mere Private (Zero rank). He was demoted from Colonel to Private. He is a disgrace.”
It is alleged that Sarukato had to withdraw the court application on 28 November after Piki resurfaced from his girlfriends` house.
Stage management of abduction is in fashion within the opposition. House of Assembly member for Zengeza West, Job Sikhala also faked abduction in August this year. It was later established that he was holed up at his girlfriend’s house. The party’s president, Nelson Chamisa also feigned abduction in Mabvuku early this month in a style that left even his supporters doubting his story.
