By Patson Chilemba
Inspector General of Police Graphael Musamba says everything is beginning to come out now on the death of former cabinet minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha after the family lodged an official complaint of alleged murder, saying previously police were working on rumours.
And police have charged late Shikapwasha’s wife, Jane Lusengo with murder for the murder of her husband using a double barrel short gun, serial number 168462, she used to shoot her husband in the abdomen.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Musamba [pp-logged-users] described the matter as a capital offence, which the police will have to seek court interpretation on whether to continue detaining the late General’s wife and son or release them on bond until the investigations were complete.
“The charge will follow. You know for capital offences it takes a bit of time. But the charges will come forth. The reason being that the postmortem hasn’t been done. So while people can wrong-foot us on the question of the 48 hours (charging people in 48 hours), these people will be released on bond until evidence is put together through postmortem, because postmortem is important,” Musamba said told Daily Revelation before the police charged Jane with murder. “So on the other hand, when a thing like that happens, some people are better off in the hands of the police but this is not to say that they will be detained beyond 48 hours. They can be remanded at the pleasure of the court and this is what the police will work around so that they are not actually over detained … Since it’s a capital offence they are not supposed to be bonded except by court. So the police will try to get the intervention of the court to see how their release can be justified.”
Musamba said if “a suspect of murder is in the hands of the police”, the police do not have the power to release the same suspect on bond but they will have to be directed from the courts on what they should do.
“And that’s what the police will work around to try and secure their freedom so that maybe through court the police withstand the pressures not to detain somebody beyond 48 hours. Sure!” he said.
Asked if that was the process police had already embarked on, Musamba said: “Yes! What it is, is no docket on murder cases is complete without a postmortem. And that hasn’t (been done) because we get all evidence from the postmortem … the Police’s hands are usually tied but that doesn’t mean that the police can’t make an effort to go to court to see what intervention the court will make in seeing to it that their detention is justified by the court or their freedom until further notice is justified by court,” Musamba said. “It’s just not easy to put everything together at once because even when the postmortem is done today, maybe there will be other days that they will be running at their own time and once we do that it will take a time that we cannot estimate. So the police will now have to take the matter to court to say ‘this person, they are suspects of this and that’, they will seek court’s intervention whether to detain them further, it will be at the pleasure of the court and not the police.”
Asked if there were others who had been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting besides the late Reverend Shikapwasha’s wife and son, Musamba said the investigations were still ongoing and would not tell beyond that.
“Everything is just coming forth now. It was a closed shop because the police got an official complaint much much later when everything had taken place and the life was taken away,” said Musamba and indicated that the complaint came from the family. “Yes it had to come from there. Before, the police were just dwelling on rumours that there has been a shootout and of course it had to take a bit of time. Yes!”
Rev Shikapwasha died from the fatal wounds he suffered from the shooting at his Ibex Hill home.
