The Lusambos face arrest for shunning court

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Court has tasked Police in Lusaka to apprehend and detain former Lusaka Province minister Bowman Lusambo and wife Nancy.

The order comes after the Bulldozer and the Bulldozeress absconded court without any explanation yesterday.

Magistrate Faidess Hamaundu has issued a warrant of arrest against the Lusambos ordering law enforcement officers to shut them in, in any cell of their choice and escort the couple to Court on June 18.

Lusambo and his wife Nancy missed Court without justification yesterday, to the annoyance of ACC senior prosecutor Daniel Ngwira who had drained their phone batteries and that of their lawyers when he repeatedly called them since Monday to remind them about the graft case.

The sureties were also not in court to explain the whereabouts of the couple, neither were their layers.

Ngwira was forced to make an application to the court to place the couple on bench warrant for absconding Court despite of the efforts he made to ensure they attend Court.

“We are taken aback by the absence of the accused persons together with the sureties who are not before court, we did inform counsel of the accused persons on Monday June 10, that we had a witness who is on stand, and we said we are ready to proceed inorder to avoid an adjournment,” he said.

“This morning we did communicate with the defense and they said one of the lawyers will appear before court but he’s not yet here.”

He said Lusambo has five lawyers from Makebi Zulu advocates who placed themselves on record to offer legal counsel yet, non of them was in court.

“The accused persons have conducted themselves in an unacceptable manner considering that when police bond was issued their warrant indicated that they will be appearing before court and that undertaking has been reluctant disregard, and for the circumstances we beg the court to exercise it’s power and cause the accused persons to be brought on warrant,”Ngwira said.

As Ngwira was making the application one of the lawyers from Makebi Zulu’s law firm Emmanuel Phiri walked in and attempted to give an explanation for his late coming and why the accused were not present, but magistrate Hamaundu could not entertain him.

She directed Ngwira to proceed with the application.

Ngwira maintained that Lusambo and the wife be brought to Court on warrant on Monday next week.

Magistrate Hamaundu granted the application and issued a warrant of arrest against the couple.

In this case Lusambo is facing 10 corruption-related charges among them one count of corrupt acquisition of public property, five counts of possessing property suspected to be proceeds of crime, three counts of tax evasion and one count of conspiracy to defraud.

He is jointly charged with his wife Nancy Manaseh for possessing four houses in Silverest Gardens, Chongwe which were suspected to be procceds of crime.

By Mwaka Ndawa

Kalemba June 13, 2024