Tue, 20 Dec 2016 12:54:54 +0000
By Gwendolyn Mchenga
THE surities and witnesses for Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba and his co-accused in the case of illegal drilling have vanished and now the Lusaka Magistrates Court has summoned former UPND Magoye and Siavonga Members of Parliament to appear in court to explain the whereabouts of the two suspects.
The two former parliamentarians, Oliver Mulombe and Kennedy Hamudulu for Magoye and Siavonga respectively were sureties for the accused but failed to appear before court for trial for the third time.
When the matter came up for trial before Principal Magistrate Mwaka Mikalile, State prosecutor Dennis Manda informed court that the State would not proceed with the matter because four of the 19 accused persons were not before court for the third time and that the arresting officer should explain before court if he had managed to locate the witnesses and the sureties.
The arresting officer Mooya Mubita informed the court he had tried all possible means to locate the accused persons and their sureties but had failed to trace them.
Mr Mubita stated that he failed to locate one of the accused Natasha and his efforts to locate her two sureties also proved futile because their mobile phones were constantly unreachable.
He had also failed to execute the warrants for Cosmas Njovu because he was not at his residence and that other people had taken occupation of the premises. And one of the defence lawyers, Martha Mushipe, told the court that in the last sitting bench warrants were issued to accused number three, five and six but had also failed to locate them as she did not have information on their whereabouts.
In this case Mr Mwamba and 19 others are charged with unlawful drilling.
The matter comes up on January 16 for mention and March 13 for a possible trial.
