Maravi

Kabonde tells senior cops that Rupiah ordered him to travel to Mufumbwe

Kabonde tells senior cops that Rupiah ordered him to travel to Mufumbwe
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sun 30 May 2010, 04:10 CAT

POLICE provincial commanding officers, some deputy commissioners and senior assistant commissioners on Thursday grilled Inspector General Francis Kabonde over the Mufumbwe violence and demanded a post-mortem to avoid the repeat of the bloody fracas.

And Kabonde told the police commanders that President Rupiah Banda ordered him to travel to Mufumbwe Constituency during the by-elections in April.

Meanwhile, Kabonde has directed police provincial commanding officers to assign intelligence officers to sniff around and find out who the presidential candidate for the PF-UPND Pact and other opposition parties would be in the 2011 elections.

Well-placed sources disclosed that Kabonde was at pains to answer the questions from commanding officers, some deputy commissioners and senior assistant commissioners during an emergency meeting held at Zambia Police Service’s Force Headquarters in Lusaka around 15:00 hours.

“Mr Kabonde yesterday Wednesday called for an emergency meeting today Thursday morning but the meeting only started at 15:00 hours. The meeting was attended by Copperbelt provincial commanding officer and his intelligence officer, Lusaka provincial commanding officer and his intelligence officer, Paramilitary Unit commander and his intelligence officer, Protective Unit and intelligence officer, Mobile Unit Kamfisa and intelligence officer and some directors of various departments among others,” the source said.

“He Kabonde was trying to ask commanding officers to put in place intelligence to monitor opposition political parties and know what their plans are ahead of the 2011 elections and to know the candidates; yes the candidate for the pact, to sniff around. But the commanders were against him except for one deputy commissioner, Mr Lungu. It was a bad day for him Kabonde, everyone was against him.”
The sources said the commanding officers and other police high command officers told Kabonde that they were unhappy with the public perception about the police service.

“The commanders were not happy with the performance of the police and the outcome of the Mufumbwe by-elections. They told the IG Mr Kabonde that, ‘we police officers are degraded, and people have lost confidence and respect for the police because of our poor performance in Mufumbwe’. They said even when the police was doing something right, people would still say, ‘you are MMD cadres’.

They suggested to the IG to conduct a postmortem by calling all provincial commanding officers and heads of different units for a workshop on the code of conduct in elections,” the source said. “They also suggested to the IG that he should ask the Minister of Home Affairs Mkhondo Lungu to institute an inquiry into what happened in Mufumbwe, concerning the violence and police conduct.

They really grilled him. They wanted to know why when he was there in Mufumbwe there were increased reports of violence, but he said he tried his best to control the situation but he was given instructions by the President Banda on what to do. Today Thursday, he was under pressure. The commanders had no kind words for him. For the first time, they grilled him. When pressure intensified, the IG said, ‘don’t blame me, blame your colleague, the commanding officer for North Western Province Fabian Katiba because that is his area of operation’. But the commanders insisted that he must ask the minister to institute an inquiry to ascertain why us as police, we failed to perform in Mufumbwe so that that incidence doesn’t recur.

“The commanders also told the IG that, ‘you must get ready to answer questions from lawyers since this matter has gone to court’. You must know how you will answer, why you allowed violence when you were there as IG. That was when he started pushing the blame on Mr Katiba.”

Other sources revealed that during the same meeting, the officers queried Kabonde over the failure to get police escort vehicles and motorbikes from South Africa’s Instrumentation for Traffic Law Enforcement (Pty) despite part of the money having been paid.

“They asked him why the motorbikes had not been delivered. At the moment, State House has no motorbikes, those bikes they are using were donated by the World Bank to RTSA Road Transport and Safety Agency for traffic patrols to reduce accidents. They are for law enforcement on roads and not for escort of the Head of State.

They are using those bikes because they have failed to get the bikes from South Africa,” the source said. “The bikes at State House are not fit for presidential escort; they are small 750 CC but those that were purchased in South Africa but not yet delivered are 1300 CC, they are big bikes for VIP or presidential escort. The IG failed to explain why the bikes and vehicles have not been delivered. The police command is divided, the IG is not supported. He left the office just after the meeting. He knocked off early and went home.”

Last January, a combined team of Anti Corruption Commission (ACC), Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), Zambia Police and Zambia Security Intelligence Service (ZSIS) officers recorded a warn and caution statement from Kabonde in connection with unaccounted for K1 billion overpaid to Instrumentation for Traffic Law Enforcement (Pty) for the purchase of police escort vehicles, motorbikes, bullet-proof presidential cars and traffic equipment.

In 2006 ahead of the September presidential elections, the Zambia Police under then inspector general Ephraim Mateyo and Kabonde as commissioner of police ordered 20 VIP escort vehicles, 20 VIP escort motorbikes and three armoured/bullet proof BMW X5 vehicles for the President from Instrumentation for Traffic Law Enforcement (Pty) but only 10 vehicles, 10 motorbikes and one armoured BMW X5 vehicle were delivered despite overpaying the firm by K1 billion.

Kabonde is alleged to have signed for some payments in this transaction.
But Instrumentation for Traffic Law Enforcement (Pty) Limited owner Phineas Manthata told The Post last January that the Zambia Police Service owed him over 84 million rand and allegations that his firm was overpaid were “nonsense.”

Therefore, Instrumentation for Traffic Law Enforcement (Pty) Limited, has refused to release the remainder of vehicles and motorbikes to Zambia Police Service.

Labels: CORRUPTION, FRANCIS KABONDE, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 6:23 AM