Prophet’s drug trafficking trial fails to start

Fri, 23 Feb 2018 08:45:28 +0000

By JUSTINA MULENGA

 THE case in which Nigerian prophet Isaac Julius Amata is facing a charge of Drug Trafficking yesterday failed to start in the Lusaka Magistrates Court because two defence lawyers were absent in court.

When the matter came up for continued trial before Magistrate Brian Simachela yesterday, the state was ready to proceed with one witness but senior Defence Counsels a Mrs Kunda and Tutwa Ngulube where not present before court as they were attending to other matters.

One of the defence lawyers present told the court that Mrs Kunda had travelled to Ndola for another matter while Mr Ngulube was at the High Court attending to another matter.

The state and defence agreed to have the matter adjourned to March 1 2018 for mention and fixing of trial dates.

This is in a case in which Amata, a Prophet of Delta Ibu State in Nigeria, was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) for trafficking in 26.29kg of Ephedrine.

Particulars of the offence are that Amata on January 24 2018 in Lusaka, did traffic in Psychotropic Substances namely 26.29 kilograms of Ephedrine without lawful authority.

In count two, Amata on the same date in Lusaka, did import psychotropic substances, namely 26.29 Kilograms of Ephedrine without lawful authority.