EMMANUEL Mwamba, Zambia’s former ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union has become the latest victim of the enhanced policing system of the Zambia Police Service.
This entails picking someone even before thorough investigations are done, and ensuring that they are incommunicado.
Neither their families, nor their lawyers – for those who can afford their services – are told where they are.
It is ironic that the police are contradicting what President Hakainde Hichilema pledged shortly after winning the August 12, 2021 presidential election with a comfortable majority.
Mr Hichilema promised that the reign of the new dawn administration would be anchored on the rule of law, and ordered the police that they should never arrest anyone until investigations were done.
He said where an arrest had been made, the suspect should be released on police bond if the offence was bondable, and no one should be locked up for more than 48 hours without being taken to court.
In Mr Mwamba’s case, he was “arrested” on Thursday afternoon in dramatic fashion by a posse of police officers in plain clothes while he was having his vehicle cleaned at a car wash in Lusaka’s Woodlands area.
Eye witnesses recounted that Mr Mwamba was at a car wash when nine men believed to be police officers roughly grabbed him, put a cloth over his head and bundled him into a waiting Toyota Hilux at about 17 hours.
That started a nocturnal wild goose chase as Mr Mwamba’s lawyers, family and Patriotic Front officials tried frantically to find out what was happening.
Initially, it was believed that Mr Mwamba had been driven to Police Force Headquarters, but by 22 hours, neither his wife nor the members of the Patriotic Front central committee could establish his whereabouts.
But a search by his lawyers and PF members at Police Force Headquarters and Ibex Hill Police Post drew a blank and by 22 hours, the team was heading to Emmasdale police.
Reasons and circumstances of Mr Mwamba‘s abduction remained scanty for the next 36 hours but his lawyer, Mr Makebi Zulu, when contacted said the PF information and publicity deputy chairperson was picked in connection with some documents which have in the recent past been circulating on social media.
Mr Mwamba, Zambia’s former envoy to Ethiopia, AU, and South Africa was reported to have been picked and detained for allegedly being in possession of the documents the State has since characterised as fake and forged.
Eventually, he was surprisingly charged for the offence of assaulting a police officer, yet, the initial offence was obstructing the course of justice. This apparently was for resisting arrest from the plain-clothed officers – Who, wouldn’t?
While the police are mandated under the law to arrest anyone suspected of having committed a crime, they ought to be aware that one is presumed innocent until convicted by a court of law.
What is worrying is that the police have become more emboldened in disregarding a person’s human rights without any courtesy all in an attempt to embarrass someone.
These actions are however sending wrong signals not only to Zambians but the international community that the country is slowly degenerating into a police state where the rule of law is ignored with impunity.
It should not be so in a country that values the rule of law.
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