Sat, 24 Feb 2018 08:57:03 +0000
By AARON CHIYANZO
MIRPHIN Tembo, the owner of the vehicle which was involved in a hit and run accident in which a teacher, Paul Njovu lost his leg has finally been arrested.
This comes after an exposé by the Daily Nation and the subsequent directive by the senior police command.
Mr Tembo is held at Lusaka Central Police station and an identification parade was carried out yesterday.
It was suspected that police officers at Emmasdale Police Station, who rushed to the scene of the accident in Emmasdale area could not make any arrests because the prime suspect was allegedly related to a senior officer at the station.
The suspect, Mr Tembo, who is the owner of the vehicle in question was however arrested after the matter was allocated to another dealing officer from Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe police in Lusaka’s Chainda compound, following intervention by the senior police command.
The driver of the vehicle, a blue Toyota Corolla registration number AJB 4293 which had hit into the car Mr Njovu was in had abandoned it at the scene but traffic officers identified it as the owner was resident within the police camp at Emmasdale Police Station.
When contacted a few days after struggling to get hold of him, Mr Tembo allegedly said that it was a taxi driver who was driving his vehicle on the fateful day and that he was even on the run.
The victim’s uncle, Mr Leonard Kapasula, who was the driver of a Nissan Caravan registration number BAG 8202 which was hit by the over speeding Toyota Corolla, told Daily Nation that police were reluctant to investigate the matter after discovering that the suspect was related to a senior officer.
Mr Kapasula explained that he had insisted that the police officers at the station get more information from the owner of the vehicle because he was the prime suspect but in vain.
After learning of the incident through the media, Lusaka Province police commissioner, Nelson Phiri directed the district traffic officer to immediately institute investigations into the matter.
Mr Phiri, who is out of town said in interview yesterday that the intervention by the senior command had led to an identification parade because it was not all police officers who had a laissez-faire attitude.
“You see that we are not shielding anyone. It’s actually not all police officers who work like that. Senior officers intervened,” he said.
Mr Njovu, 27, is recovering at the UTH after his leg was amputated.
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