The entrance to Parliament building along Kwame Nkrumah in Harare was briefly cordoned off on Tuesday afternoon after a suspicious-looking metal container was detected.
Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda said security agents who attended the object ascertained that it was not a bomb but a harmless thing that had been forgotten by its owner. Said Chokuda:
Alert security details at the entrance saw the suspicious container that had been left unattended and immediately alerted us.
We quickly called in security agents who managed to ascertain that it was harmless while its owner who had forgotten it at the entrance was also identified.
Earlier on Tuesday, former Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, tweeted about the “strange silver” object. He wrote:
We have just finished a Public Accounts Committee at Parliament. Regrettably, there is a bomb scare at same. There is a strange silver box left outside the pavement in Kwame Nkurumah Avenue. We pray for safety and peace. The right to life is sacrosanct
Chokuda further revealed that the entrance to Parliament has since been re-opened to legislators and visitors.
