Maravi

Katumbi must come and answer charges - Nkole

Katumbi must come and answer charges - Nkole
By Speedwell Mupuchi
Saturday February 24, 2007 [02:00]

TASK Force on Corrutpion chairman Maxwell Nkole yesterday said Democratic Republic of Congo Katanga Region governor Moses Katumbi must come to Zambia to answer to what he (Katumbi) calls rubbish. Responding to Katumbi's statement that what the Task Force was saying about him was rubbish, Nkole said as far as they were concerned, Katumbi was a fugitive. "He is required here because he has some civil and criminal cases in courts. He has to come and help us clear his cases," Nkole said. "If he thinks the cases are stupid and rubbish, then he should come and answer to the same rubbish. After all, if it is rubbish then there is no need for him to worry, he can simply come in."

In an interview from his Lubumbashi residence in the DRC last Sunday, Katumbi said whatever the Task Force was saying was "rubbish" because the matter was already in court and he had a lawyer representing him in Zambia although the case had been postponed several times. He said only President Levy Mwanawasa could stop him from coming to Zambia. He said he had respect for the court process over anything related to charges against him. "I will come. I will come, I will ask the Zambian government. I don't have to ask the Task Force, it's not the Task Force leading the country," Katumbi said, when asked if he was still insisting on travelling to Zambia over official duties now that the Task Force says he still has to avail himself for questioning.

Katumbi said he was not afraid of answering to the accusations but that would be in court, a process he said was already in place. "I am not above the law. Why can I be above the law? Nobody is above the law. Let's follow the matter in court, let's follow the procedure," he stressed. He said he had no grudges against the Zambian government because he was aware that the problem was in court.

Katumbi left Zambia in 2002 and he has been pursued by the Task Force on Corruption in connection with a series of cases involving restricted properties such as MCK dump mining trucks on the Copperbelt, Mansa Milling, Tamba Bashila, among others. Nkole said Katumbi's cases were still in the High Court where ownership was being contested and that the Task Force had been conducting criminal investigations pertaining to Katumbi's involvement in the K53 billion maize deal part of which was diverted for his (Katumbi's) private use.

Labels: KATUMBI

posted by MrK @ 1:10 PM