A NATIONAL Registration Passport and Citizenship, assistant registration officer, has told the Lusaka Magistrate court that it was wrong for Lusaka business executive, Harry Findlay to hold more than one passport.
Mr. Mulenga Kaliwile said this was because Findlay had reported to the office that his passport was lost when he went to obtain a new passport.
He told Lusaka Principal Magistrate Sylvia Munyinya during cross examination yesterday that Findlay obtained another passport because the one he had got was lost and he needed another one. Findlay is charged with two counts of holding more than one passport and found with endorsements of forged immigration stamps.
It is alleged that Findlay on March 14 2017, at Lusaka did acquire a Zambian ZPO21382 passport number purporting to have lost a Zambian passport number ZPO13259 when in fact not.
In the second counts, Findlay is alleged to have being found with a forged immigration endorsements of forged immigration stamp in a passport found in possession of endorsements of forged immigration stamps for Mwami Immigration Border Control in his passport number ZPO32178 purporting to show that it was officially endorsed when in fact not. But during cross examination led by one of the defence lawyers, Milner Katolo, when asked if there was anything wrong with Findaly holding more than one passport, Mr Kaliwile said there was wrong because when he obtained Zambian ZPO21382 he had lost his Zambian passport number ZPO13259.
He insisted when asked by Mr Katolo what was wrong with Findlay having passports which were regularly issued to him by the passport office that there was something wrong because the records indicated that his earlier passport no .ZPO13259 got lost.
Mr Kaliwile explained that once a passport was reported missing and replaced it was not supposed to continue being used.
Further, in cross examination by another defence lawyer, Charles Changano, Mr Kaliwile agreed that a passport was only issued to a person when they met the requirements and the passport office was satisfied.
He said that upon being issued with the passport, both the passport officer and passport holder were supposed to sign to confirm that everything was in order.
He further explained that he never signed any of Findlay’s passports but were signed by a Mr Nkhoma who was now deceased. He agreed in continued cross examination by defence lawyer Jonas Zimba that he did not tell the immigration that previous passports which were issued to Findlay were not cancelled. Trial continues on March 3, 2023
It was wrong for Findlay to have more than one passport – Witness
