Four Police Officers from the Anti-Robbery Department at Mufulira Central Police Station have been arrested in connection with the murder of Nason Simbeye, a 22 year old police officer who was found dead in his house at Sikalangwe Police Camp in Mufulira on 23rd October 2020.
Following an inquest, the Mufulira Magistrate’s court ruled that evidence from the Pathologist and the Ballistic expert who both separately testified that their findings revealed that Constable Simbeye was shot from the back while kneeling, had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the police officer did not commit suicide but was murdered.
The court further named Simbeye’s four workmates namely, Detective Sergeant Jameson Luundu Lubaya, Detective Sergeant Waluka Wallace Chilombe, Detective Sergeant Marvin Manda, and Detective Sergeant Ben Syakalundu as suspects and ordered that they be arrested and charged with murder.
Magistrate Sharon Luhanga said it had been proved that Simbeye was killed from an unknown place, before being transported to his house where his body was found, saying several witnesses testified that there was no pool of blood in the house, adding that his bed and beddings had no blood stains.
She said the presence of a gun from the Mufulira Central Police Anti Robbery Department at the crime scene implicated the officers, as there was no evidence that Simbeye had gone home with a gun on the fateful day.
“A trained police officer would not act in the manner in which you acted when you were sent by your boss to check on Simbeye at his house, and even though you attributed that to mere errors, I find it very suspicious,” Magistrate Luhanga said.
Earlier, the suspects testified that when they discovered Simbeye’s body, they left the crime scene unsecured, as they were in shock.
She said the testimony of a taxi driver, Hezron Sinkala revealed that one of the suspects, Constable Luundu already knew that Simbeye was dead around 07:00 hours, despite the deceased’s body being discovered around 10:00 hours.
Magistrate Luhanga further ruled that the matter be taken up by a police station outside Copperbelt Province, saying the Police Investigations Officer, Chief Inspector, Kennedy Siazyombo was biased in his investigations and ignored clues that would have led him to the deceased’s killers.
Mr.Siazyombo told the court that he forgot to have fingerprints at the scene taken, and did not ask ZICTA to avail the location where a message from the deceased’s phone was sent asking his fiancé for help, saying he had been attacked.
Meanwhile,a Police Intelligence Officer, Nchimunya Mambo testified that following Simbeye’s death the District Criminal Investigations Officer instructed him to collect all firearms from the Anti-Robbery Department due to allegations that they had killed Simbeye ,but the firearms were later returned to them without being subjected to ballistic examination.
Mr.Mambo testified that following collection of the deceased’s body, the four officers insisted that they needed to search Simbeye’s house, alleging that he had stolen money from the police station, despite there being no report of missing money, but abandoned the mission after being informed that the deceased’s relatives were on the way to his house.
Another witness from the Police Amoury department, Inspector Imuksi Mwauluka said in December 2020, the Anti-Robbery Department failed to give an annual report to account for how ammunition had been used.
These are dangerous times. It’s very sad.
I am glad most of the names of suspects are from the south, west and north western provinces
#Henry at the risk of being a labelled a tribslist, I fully agree with you.
So that’s the level you’re seeing things at. So why have they been arrested then instead of leaving them to escape justice?
Gunner haven’t you read that the police boss wanted to hush the issue. Even his court presentation stinks.
Tribalist!
Deja Vu is a tribalist
Which begs the question of why this fellow was killed. We Southerners, Westerners and North Westerners, do not normally commit crime. We are honest and hard working. It is why we have been feeding this country for almost 60 years. I defy you to go in to foreign prisons, since you cannot accuse them of tribal bias, to list the names of the Zambians incarcerated there, and lets see which provinces they come from. Our presidents are HH and Mwanawassa, who never stole from anyone. Can we say that about Lungu, Banda, Satan and Chiluba?
#Lazy Lungu… I am realist not a tribalist. Why are you so sensitive over your tribe. In privacy you talk sheet about other people. No need to lecture a dunderhead.
Evil men in uniform
My cousin was robbed 4 months ago and yet lives 1 mile away from a police post. This shows how incompetent these forces are. In England this can’t be tolerated
In England where a police officer raped and murdered a lone female marketing executive walking home from visiting a friend nearby.
he forgot to have fingerprints at the scene taken!!!!
Imagine! What kind of a policeman is this? He should be dismissed immediately!
Gunner was she your wife? Stop picking on a 1 in a million case and using that to justify incompetence in zambia
This sounds like a PF case, when was the young man killed?
2020. And the suspects are only being charged and arrested three years later. In such a straight forward case
These officers will go scot free. They know all the loopholes and their fellow officers have already assisted them to botch the evidence.
Question is why was the guy executed? Had he uncovered some mafia network in the police? What were these corrupt policemen wanting to hide? The underlying case needs to be investigated. Thats why the magistrate doesnt want copperbelt police to handle this case. He has smelt a rat
I said it earlier that sometimes some police officers cover up crimes by fellow officers. What would be important to know is the motive for the murder. From 2015 through to the run up for the 2021 elections, ZP was very divided according to the voting pattern, so it’s not unusual to allege that tribalism could’ve also been at play. Many murder cases between the said period, especially from political violence have remained inconclusive because officers are partisan and are sitting on the dockets. The person that hacked Kungo is known and is still free in Solwezi. One day he’ll be made to answer together with those that are shielding him
As usual someone will deny these facts
This is like a scene from a movie. Young officer is taken to isolated area and attacked, finds time to call girlfriend saying he is in danger. Apparently gets shot in the back of the head from there.
Four other police officers take him to his house and badly stage a suicide.
When going home one of the officer hints to a taxi driver that he has a funeral for one of his friends even before the body is found. Their boss also fails to investigate properly. The officers previously requested to search the house of the person they allegedly killed. Seems to me there was stolen money from someone since C5 officers have been known to be criminals themselves. Boss covered it up. Who was brave enough to expose this crime?
It goes to show that the biggest thieves are these Anti robbery officers overzealous on roads shooting around anyhow you might just soil yourself ,I do not know how they are trained these now the true colors of most of them
ZP needs serious reforms and these are members of anti robbery squad..these are bent officers who possibly got rid of a good officer. These are the first chaps on the scene and you can forget about them reporting any evidence of value and leaving any witnesses alive at the scene of crime.
Very true. When you pick officers for such teams you need very very honest disciplined people because evidence is usually tempting. You are in the Anti-robbery squad, have no money at home, family has nomealie meal, and you come across robbers with K20 million. What do you do?
Don’t feed the troll