Maravi

Ours is a disgraced police

Ours is a disgraced police
By The Post
Mon 30 Aug. 2010, 04:04 CAT

Every state must have the power to maintain order and punish criminal acts. But the rules and procedures by which the state enforces its laws must be explicit, not secret, arbitrary or subject to political manipulation by those in power, those in charge of state institutions.

We say this in the light of the police’s refusal to arrest and prosecute Lucy Changwe, a deputy minister in Rupiah Banda’s government, who bounced a cheque of K10 million issued to the complainant Roger Musonda of Mkushi. To us, and probably to many other independent-minded citizens, this is a case of double standards. We say this because in a similar case involving George Mpombo, an ardent critic of Rupiah, the police behaved differently. They were very eager to arrest Mpombo and prosecute him for bouncing a postdated cheque he had issued to a personal friend Terence Findlay, an MMD cadre with very strong links to Frederick Chiluba and one with reasonable access to Rupiah and with good business links with government institutions.

The police are saying they cannot arrest and prosecute Changwe because at the time of issuing the K10 million cheque to Musonda, that is on May 21, 2010, she had K23 million in her bank account. And because of this, she can’t be arrested and prosecuted because she had sufficient funds on that account at the time of issuing that cheque. But this is not true. Changwe did not have sufficient funds on that account at the time of issuing that cheque because she had also written other cheques whose total exceeded her K23 million account balance.

Musonda deposited the cheque the same day but it bounced because she only had K2 million available to clear a cheque of K10 million. Changwe’s cheque to Musonda bounced because she didn’t have sufficient funds in the account, she had overdrawn her account. If she had sufficient funds in her account to cover that cheque of K10 million, her cheque to Musonda wouldn’t have bounced. If the police’s reasoning is accepted, then very few, if any, would be prosecuted for bouncing a cheque. We say this because if one has K23 million in his or her account on a particular day, one can issue as many cheques as possible on that same day to as many people as possible as long as none of them is more than K23 million, and whichever cheque bounces after that, it is no offence. This is nonsense. It doesn’t make sense legally or otherwise.

And it is decisions like these that are undermining public confidence in state institutions. With this type of reasoning and decisions, how can anyone expect the police to be respected and retain some measure of credibility with the Zambian people? It is clear that for those who are in Rupiah’s league, excuses will always be found to make them escape justice. We have not forgotten how every effort was made to try and make Dr Solomon Musonda get away with shooting an unarmed and harmless young opposition PF cadre in Serenje. The only time Musonda was arrested was when measures were instituted to take civil action against him. But even then, the police tried in all sorts of ways to defend his action. They actually cleared him of any wrongdoing. But today, the same police have been tasked to prosecute a man they had declared innocent. What should the public expect from this prosecution – a conviction or an acquittal? How can the police be entrusted with the prosecution of a matter they did not want to prosecute and be expected to put in a spirited effort to secure a conviction?

Probably Musonda should just take a similar route and pursue civil litigation against Changwe, hoping that the police will at that stage jump in and try to save face. This is not the way to administer justice in a country. But this is the way justice is being administered in our country today. Those who administer the criminal justice in our country today hold power with the potential for abuse and tyranny. And they are actually abusing that power in a very tyrannical way. They are using their control of the criminal justice system to harass political opponents and exempt members of their league from justice. No nation that aspires to be a more just, fair and humane one can tolerate abuses of this nature. From the very beginning, no one ever thought Changwe would be arrested because the police were very reluctant to deal with the matter. And this renders credibility to the arguments of those who are saying that Mpombo’s arrest, prosecution and conviction was part of a conspiracy to politically and otherwise cripple him. The similarities between Mpombo’s case and that of Changwe are glaring, and it’s very difficult to distinguish them. Mpombo issued a postdated cheque of K10 million to Findlay.

At the time Mpombo issued the postdated cheque, he didn’t have sufficient funds in his account. This didn’t matter because the cheque was not for that date but for a future date when he thought he would have sufficient funds to cover the cheque. But life being what it is with its uncertainties, as the date of the cheque was nearing, Mpombo realised that he may not have the money in his account on the date of the cheque and asked Findlay not to deposit the cheque until he was told to do so. Findlay ignored this and went ahead and deposited the cheque, which consequently bounced. And Mpombo was reported to the police and arrested. But before being arrested, Mpombo went to Findlay with cash to make good the cheque. Findlay refused to take the money and Mpombo had to pay that money to the police. But the matter still went ahead, and Mpombo was convicted and sent to prison with a fine on top of that. Is it illegal to issue a postdated cheque in this country? Is it illegal to issue a number of cheques whose sum total is more than the balance on one’s account? Does it really matter if one issues a postdated cheque when there is no money on his account but at the time it’s presented, it is adequately covered and accordingly cleared? This whole issue boils down to the right to equality before the law, or equal protection of the law. This issue is fundamental to any just and democratic society.

As we have consistently stated, whether political ally of those in power or opponent – all are entitled to equal protection before the law. And under no circumstances should those in power, those who control state institutions and administer the criminal justice system in our country impose additional inequalities; they should be required to deal evenly and equally with all our people. No one is above the law. We all submit to the law because we recognise that however indirectly, we are submitting to ourselves as makers of the law. And when laws are established by the people who then have to obey them, both the law and good governance or democracy are served. If Rupiah and his friends had a sense of shame, they would not allow Changwe not to be arrested in the light of what they did to Mpombo. But these are shameless characters. There is nothing in this world that they can’t do as long as it suits them no matter how repugnant it may be. Public opinion doesn’t seem to bother them.

Labels: GEORGE MPOMBO, MMD, POLICE CORRUPTION, TERRENCE FINDLAY

posted by MrK @ 6:26 PM