.TEMBO

By REBECCA MUSHOTA –

A NDOLA magistrates’ court yesterday admitted a car into evidence that suspended Copperbelt Police Commissioner Mary Tembo is accused of getting from a company for her own benefit.
Chief Ndola resident magistrate Paul Chisha allowed the State to tender into evidence a Toyota Corrolla registration number AAX 5716 after he rejected an objection by defence lawyers.
This is in a matter in which Tembo has been charged with two counts of abuse of office.
It is alleged that Tembo, 53, of house number 4, Bukafu Street, in Ndola and plot 37 Lusaka West farms in the first count, on dates unknown but between May 1 and June 30, 2013 abused the authority of her office as Commissioner of Police for the Copperbelt Province by obtaining a Toyota Corolla registration number AAX5716 from Grizzly Mining Limited which she registered in her names thereby obtaining benefits for herself.
In the second count, it is alleged that Tembo, between November 1 and December 31, 2012 in Ndola, abused her authority of office as Copperbelt Commissioner of Police by asking Grizzly Mining Limited, a private company, to fix her personal vehicle, a Toyota Cressida registration F100.
When the matter came up yesterday for continued trial, defence lawyers objected an application by a witness, Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) senior investigations officer Caroline Nkhata to tender the said vehicle as part of her evidence.
Defence counsel Milner Katolo said the word chasis number that the witness had referred to on a Road Transport and Safety Agency printout she had presented in court was not printed inside the bonnet of the car when court moved outside to view the vehicle.
“The figures that we saw came after the words VIN and not chasis. The witness did not tell us that chasis was the same as VIN,” Mr Katolo said.
But ACC prosecutor Boniface Chiwala said VIN stood for Vehicle Identification Number which the document that the witness referred to reads as chasis number.
Mr Chisha admitted the car as part of the State evidence saying that all the issues that the defence had, should be raised in cross examination.
The matter continues.