By MILDRED KATONGO –
A KAMFINSA convict serving a jail sentence of 15 years has had his stay in prison extended by three more years after he was found in possession of 75 grammes of marijuana in prison wrapped in a Bible.
Kitwe magistrate Leornad Tembo extended the jail sentence of Edward Bubala, 31, a fish monger of Mazabuka, after finding him guilty of trafficking marijuana, while in Kamfinsa prison serving.
Bubala’s initial 15 years jail sentence was for robbery.
On April 1 this year, Bubala, while in prison at Kamfinsa state prison did traffic 65 balls of suspected narcotic drugs.
In April this year, Kamfinsa prisons assistant superintendent Makayi, while on duty was tipped by some inmates that the accused had trafficked some narcotic drugs suspected to be marijuana.
Mr Makayi then conducted a body search on inmates and found Bubala with 65 balls of narcotic drugs wrapped in pages of the Holy Bible.
He reported to the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) who later sent the drugs to Lusaka for chemical analysis where it was established that the drug trafficked was marijuana and was weighing 75 grammes.
Bubala admitted the charge but said he was given the drugs by a prison warder in exchange for rice in prison which the officer sold.
When the matter came up for written facts, magistrate Tembo found Bubala guilty of the charge and convicted him accordingly.
“Upon your own admission, i hereby find you guilty as charged and convict you accordingly,” he said.
In mitigation, Bubala asked for leniency from the court as he had already served many years in prison.
“Your honour, I might end up dying in prison because I have already spent 10 years serving a sentence for robbery, please have mercy on me,” He said.
Magistrate Tembo told Bubala that he would have reasoned before committing another crime because he was already in prison.
“I have added three years to the sentence you are already serving, because you have proved that you have not reformed. We send people to jail to reform and teach the society that committing a crime is wrong, instead of reforming, you are busy corrupting morals of inmates by committing more offences,” he said.