By Staff Reporter
Police over the weekend rounded up and beat up all the over 30 patrons at a night club in Chingola and put them in police cells after which they made each one of them pay K56 without providing them with receipts, the owner of the night club has said.
Several revelers have given an account of what they described as the brutal arrests they faced from the police and how they were bundled into one cell which was full, such that one fainted and had to be [pp-logged-users] resuscitated back to life.
Owner of the club, Pa Loketo, from where the revelers were arrested from, James Suwilanji Sinyingwa, narrated to Daily Revelation Newspaper that he, along with his workers were among those arrested by the police, and that because they left no one to attend to matters, the club was left unattended to and he lost money and a pool table as a result.
He said police arrested him and the others over claims that he did not have a permit to host the patrons.
“The way they came, it was brutal. And I lost things. I lost the money from the counter because even the bar lady was taken. Even the place was left unlocked. I was gotten as well. I lost about K2000 plus the pool table, pool stick, the balls for the pool table,” Sinyingwa said. “My place is a bar and restaurant. It is registered as Pa Loketo.”
He said upon being released in the morning, the police made them pay K56 each, but that only two out of the over 30 who were arrested were provided with receipts after police claimed that they did not have any.
“The bar was fully parked. Even me I was beaten. I have colleagues who came, the people I work with, they came to support my business, they were also beaten,” Sinyingwa said. “Even the way they came, at least if I had issues with them they would have taken me the owner or just closed the place, or maybe just to educate us on how operations are run during Christmas and everything. Now they came brutally, they were not talking to anybody. They were just beating.”
He said that this was not the first time police were doing such a thing to him, saying despite being fully paid up and the place being valid.
“The way we do it, bar and restaurant, it’s not like a night club where by people can eat food at any time. We normally operate like a night club because our certificate is such that since it’s food plus beer it can’t be closed and everything. But every time my bar gets full, I will expect that,” Sinyingwa said. “And a lot of my customers have gone through that situation. I was even saying that I think this is the last time I am doing this, I will leave this town. I will go somewhere else. Because I am young doing business, I am not stable, you should encourage me to work hard at my age. This thing of getting all the people into police cells, at least they should have left me with just one bar lady.”
Sinyingwa narrated that in the police cells, one of those arrested fainted, saying there was no response even when they called the police for help, until the cellmates started banging the door heavily fearing that someone would die.
He said it was only after the police had opened the door, that the person who had fainted was resuscitated after several minutes of exposure to fresh air.
“The following day, they started intimidating people. Those they had beaten badly and were complaining that they needed medical attention were told that they would not be released. Some people were swollen. There were even old people there and some with children. It was embarrassing,” Sinyingwa said.
One of the revelers who spoke with Daily Revelation on condition of anonymity because of where he works said they just saw two land cruisers approaching the club, and then police officers came out and started rounding everybody up.
He said police were uncompromising when they tried asking them questions, saying he was handcuffed to three people, including his wife, who he said was roughed up and thrown into the vehicle after which she was handcuffed to him.
“It’s like they parked us 30 or so in one land cruiser. After we complained, they called in another Landcruiser which came and then others were transferred to the other Landcruiser at taken to the station,” the reveler said. “In the morning they started asking that ‘is there anyone who was beaten by police as you were being brought here?’ So one guy raised his hands, then they said ‘okay for you since you require a medical report, so you won’t be released until someone to sign for your police report comes on Tuesday’, and that ‘then those who want to go out they shouldn’t demand for receipts because today we don’t have receipts. If you want receipts then you will be released on Tuesday or Wednesday, but those who are in a hurry to go they can just pay and if they want receipts they can come later for the receipts.”
He said because the cell was congested, and many did not want to bear remaining in custody, they all just resolved to pay so that they could go home.
“We were paying K56 and I think we were over 80 in all (plus the others who had been rounded up elsewhere). So two guys were detained saying, these two we won’t allow them to go because they were making noise when we were arrested them,” the reveler said. “After we made the calls that’s when they too were made to pay K56 but they were given receipts which they said they did not have.”
Efforts to talk to Copperbelt police commissioner Peacewell Mweemba failed as his line rung unanswered.[/pp-logged-users]
