By Staff Reporter
The Zambia police service says it has a watertight case against late cabinet minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha’s wife, Jane and will secure a conviction in a murder case against her.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, police say they have prepared a watertight case against Jane based on the evidence they have been able to [pp-logged-users] secure against her.
“We are very sure that we are going to secure a conviction. We have submitted evidence pointing to her. That’s why we arrested her. If we didn’t have evidence we would have continued investigating up to now, but the fact that we have now finally arrested her, we have sufficient evidence to prove that,” Police spokesperson Rae Hamoonga said. “We feel that we have sufficient evidence so let the court go and decide and weigh the matter and see whether our evidence is watertight and see how the matter will be concluded. But we are committed to ensuring that this matter is concluded justly.”
Hamoonga said regardless of what led Jane to kill the husband, the police’s main concern was the action by her to murder the husband.
“So we just want to remind people that if you have differences please ensure that you resolve them amicably. If you commit a crime to resolve the conflict then you are inviting the police to come in and ensure that the law takes its course because nobody is allowed to take the life of any other person,” he said.
Hamoonga’s boss, Inspector General Graphael Musamba recently told Daily Revelation that things became clear about the matter when the family of the late Shikapwasha filed an official complaint with the police as police were previously just working on rumours.
Asked about the details of the complaint and if it involved information about alleged arguments over the will, which allegedly omitted Jane and some of her children, Hamoonga said the police’s main focus was centred around the action to murder and not what transpired leading to that.
He said the focus was mainly on how and not what led to the killing.
Hamoonga also said Shikapwasha’s son who was arrested alongside the mother was released from police custody, saying he is a free man that was why he was not arrested, unless other evidence suffices.
“So those others who would have been caught up of course we had to interview them and then we found that okay they are not involved then we let them go,” he said.
Hamoonga urged firearm owners to secure their firearms as they were only licensed to the people to whom the licences were given, and should only be accessed by the owners of the firearms.
He said the firearms owners should realise that the firearms they possess should not be used anyhow as they have laws for usage, saying if not property utilised the Inspector General had the power under section 15 of the Firearms Act to revoke licences and firearms from people.
“The firearm which was used to kill was for Gen Shikapwasha, retired,” said Hamoonga.
Gen Shikapwasha was buried yesterday at the Lusaka Memorial Park cemetery.
