WITNESS SAYS HE SAW NOTHING UNUSUAL & DID NOT GET ANY EVIDENCE AT CHANDA’S RESIDENCES
31 January 2022— A STATE witness has told the Lusaka magistrates court that there was nothing unusual he encountered during the search of Amos Chanda’s residence at 67 Elm Road in Lusaka’s Woodlands suburb.
Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) investigations officer Christopher SIWAKWI told Chief Resident Magistrate Hon.Dominic Makalichi that: “no my Lord we did not find anything of evidential value from the searches they conducted against Amos Chanda.”
This was in response to defence counsel Timmy Munalula who wanted to know what the ACC found during their searches at the farm in Njolwe, State Lodge house and Elm Road residence.
The witness also caused laughter in court when he said the ACC left Mr Chanda at State Lodge and went to look for him at his residence in Woodlands.
“No, Mr Chanda did not obstruct us at Njolwe farm, at his property in State Lodge and at his house in Woodlands because he was not present when arrived at all the premises,” Mr SIWAKWI said.
Asked whether accused two (Mrs Chanda) and her sister Ruth MULENGA obstructed him, the witness said they did not.
But he said Mr Chanda’s insistence that the search was illegal amounted to obstruction because it delayed the search.
“Mr Chanda informed us that the search had to stop in order for him to file a complaint of assault against his sister-in-law and against himself regarding the fire arm that he alleged was pointed at him.”
“My Lord I declared the fire arm but I was furious with the interruptions and warned accused three,” he said.
He also confirmed that the ACC barred both Mr Chanda and his lawyer from attending the search at State Lodge because of the presence of journalists.
Asked whether his lawyer also wanted journalists to accompany him, the witness responded in the negative but did not explain why the lawyer was not allowed to enter State Lodge property.
He also said he did not know the details of the search warrants for all the properties and so did it know whether the properties under search belonged to Mr Amos Chanda.
The witness said the ACC arrived at State Lodge and found journalists and Mr Chanda was not present but later said Mr Chanda came with the reporters.
When asked to explain the status of the second house at Elm Road, the witness alleged that Mr Chanda told him he did not know the owners of the residence, promoting the defence lawyer to ask who was lying between him and the four other prosecution witnesses who had given a different version to the effect that Mr Chanda told them it belonged to his sister-in-law who was in Chingola.
Asked about the presence of female and male officers in the search team, the witness said it was to allow females search females and males search males.
Mr Munalula then reminded the witness that this was the reason only women were allowed in the female bedroom which belonged to a lady who was absent.
He said he was so furious that he intended to charge at accused three but later said he was never emotionally charged. At this point the defence lawyer said he had no further questions.
And I surprise move ACC prosecutor Martin Mayembe raised a preliminary issue urging the court to censure Mr Chanda for alleged mistakes in the Zambia Daily Mail report of the previous court hearing and for commenting on other ACC matters that were not before court.
In response defence lawyer Munalula said the allegations were new and he did not have instructions to respond but insisted that his client was properly guided to avoid commenting on court proceedings.
The court could not rule on the application so that the defence is allowed time to respond.
In a bad-tempered hearing characterized by emotional charges and counter applications, the court guided that the defence and prosecution must realize that they were doing it on behalf of the court and so they needed to be sober.