Pilatus proprietor bribes IG?

Mon, 22 May 2017 12:40:22 +0000

By Bennie MUNDANDO 

PILATUS Engineering Zambia Limited proprietor Joseph Niclas Huwiler has thrown his wife Charlotte Mukumbuta Huwiler and his four-year old daughter out of his house after a marital dispute and has openly told her after reporting him to the police that she stands to lose because police IG Kakoma Kanganja is on his payroll.

And when contacted for a comment, Mr. Huwiler confirmed having thrown his wife and daughter out of the house without giving details of what transpired, adding that it was not an issue worth publishing in a newspaper.

In an interview with the Daily Nation yesterday, Mrs Huwiler said she has not entered her matrimonial home since April when she was thrown out and that police officers from Woodlands police station have allegedly been threatening to arrest her for criminal trespass if she ever tried to go there.

She said Mr. Huwiler had locked up her business property, clothes and all her daughter’s belongings at Pilatus, saying he had nothing to do with her and that she stood to lose all she had as the Police Inspector General was allegedly on his payroll and that he (Mr. Huwiler) was ‘‘dealing with the top most authorities’’ who could shield him from any case.

“I reported one of his employees he has been using to insult me when he came and gave me a stick to be f***ng myself with to Woodlands police but before he could be summoned, my husband went there and cooked up a story that I had assaulted him and police instead arrested me. I was only saved by a Good Samaritan who came to sign a bond for me.

“After realising that nothing will happen at Woodlands, I took the case to Central Police but even there, nothing came up. Actually, he told me that there is nothing I can do because Mr. Kanganja is on his payroll. Woodlands police have been threatening to arrest me for criminal trespass if I ever go to the house,” a tearful Mrs Huwiler said.

She explained that her husband had also evicted her mother from the house he had given her in Leopards Hill and that they were all squatting at a friend’s house.

“He got my mom from the Copperbelt in 2013 and put her in one of his houses to stay. However, he has now removed her from that house and I decided that she could stay at one of my plots where I erected a one-roomed house. When he discovered that she would be staying at my house, he quickly went there, replaced the locks and put chains.

“As I am speaking, my mother’s belongings are also locked up at Pilatus. His own child had dropped out of school because he did not want to pay until I used my last remaining money to pay. He found me a businesswoman when we got married. I order furniture from South Africa and sell in Zambia but I cannot sell anymore because everything is locked up there,” she complained.

She said after her husband locked up her mother’s belongings, she went to Force Headquarters last Saturday with the hope that maybe some senior officers would intervene but that she was shocked to see Mr. Kanganja entering the premises driving a BMW X6 belonging to her husband which she used to drive before she was thrown out.

“My four-year-old daughter is the one who saw the vehicle first and she rushed to where it packed because she thought it was her father who had come. I followed her but one police officer restrained us, saying it was not our vehicle but the IG’s. That is when his (Mr Huwiler’s) words that the IG was on his payroll echoed in my mind. Please, tell whoever can help me to come to my rescue. I have suffered enough,” she said before breaking down. 

Contacted for a comment, Mr. Huwiler confirmed the development but said there was no need for this reporter to write a story because there was no issue.

“Yes, it is (that he had thrown out his wife and daughter). You want to put the story in your paper? There is no need. There is no issue. Goodbye,” Mr. Huwiler said before cutting the line.

Efforts to get a comment from Mr. Kanganja proved futile as his mobile phone went unanswered despite numerous attempts.