POLICE CHIEF INSPECTOR RECEIVES HIS JUST REWARD!
PRETTY 23-year- old government typist Maria Sinjonjo and her personnel officer fiancé, Figtree Zikomo, were having lunch in their favourite restaurant in the town centre when they were approached by a young man immaculately dressed in a dark-striped grey suit and carrying a leather briefcase in his right hand.
“Are you Miss Maria Sinjonjo by any chance?” the stranger asked. On getting an affirmative reply, he produced a police identity card and introduced himself as Detective SubInspector Gogo Muthiko from Lusaka Central Police Station.
The officer apologised to the couple for the disturbance but explained that he was there for official business. He waited for the couple to finish their meal, after which he asked Maria to accompany him to the police station.
“What?” the girl exclaimed, not believing her ears. “What have I done?”
“Don’t worry, sister, everything will be explained to you at the police station,” the officer replied. “We want to ask you a few questions pertaining to certain investigations we have instituted. Let me assure you that you won’t be detained for any longer than is necessary”
Realising that the officer meant serious business, Maria bade farewell to her prospective husband and followed the officer to the police station as ordered, although she was completely at a loss as to what was going on.
On arrival at the police station, Sub Inspector Gogo-Muthiko took his suspect to a room on the second floor and what she found there surprised her; for seated there, behind a huge desk puffing at a cigarette, was her former lover, Chief Inspector Godwin Mambala, who was dressed in uniform.
Sub-Inspector Gogo Muthiko simply handed the suspect to his boss and went away. Mambala exchanged some greetings with her, after which he said, “Yes young lady, you look so innocent and yet you are a snake in the grass. After doing so much for you, you decide to ditch me for that goodfor-nothing man of yours. Do you remember our deal?”
“What deal?” Maria asked, surprised. “There was no deal and you know it. I appreciate everything you did for me but I thought I was playing a dangerous game by flirting around with a married man. Being still young, I thought I should go for a single man and that was how the personnel officer came in. He may be a good-for-nothing to you but as far as I am concerned, he’s the most suitable for me.”
The Chief Inspector looked scornfully at the girl and told her she was talking rubbish. “I’ll fix you,” he warned. “You don’t even appreciate that without me, you wouldn’t have been appointed a civil servant. You would still be a mere classified daily paid employee!”
MARIA: “What has that to do with what you brought me here for?” MAMBALA (ANNOYED): “Look here young lady, you know very well that you were appointed a civil servant on the strength of a forged Form Two certificate. Aren’t you aware that such an act constitutes an offence called impersonating a person named in a certificate for which you could be jailed?” MARIA: “But you are the one who forged that certificate, and it is still with
you, so what are you talking about?” MAMBALA (GETTING EVEN
MORE ANNOYED): “Foolish little girl! Who can believe such a story? All the available evidence points to you as a guilty party. Anyway, one of my detectives will deal with you. You will have to tell your lies in court.”
And true to his word, Mambala instructed Sub-Inspector GogoMuthiko to arrest the girl for the offence of impersonating a person named in a certificate. The allegation against Maria, who was subsequently arraigned before a magistrate’s court, was that during a certain specified period she falsely represented herself as Maria Sinjonjo, a student at Kasabola Secondary School, and that she had passed her Form Two when in fact she had not.
The case for the prosecution was that there was a girl at Kasabola Secondary School in Southern Province called Maria Sajenti who had passed her Form Two in the same year the accused had been at a different secondary school in the same province. Bu in her case, she had failed her Form Two.
According to the evidence from prosecution witnesses, having failed her Form Two, the accused had filled some forms indicating that her name was Maria Sajenti Sinjonjo and that she lost her certificate, hence requiring a replacement. The number of the certificate she indicated on the forms was that of Maria Sajenti.
On the basis of the information supplied, so the court heard from prosecuting witnesses, the Ministry of Education issued a replacement certificate in the name of Maria Sajenti Sinjonjo which the accused subsequently used to be appointed as a civil servant in the government.
But in her defence, Maria categorically denied she committed the fraud alleged against her. Her story was that when Chief Inspector Mambala proposed love to her and they became lovers, he had asked her why she had not been promoted to the rank of a civil servant.
On being told that she was still regarded as a classified daily paid employee because she had failed her Form Two, Mambala had arranged with a friend at the Ministry of Education who subsequently helped in procuring a replacement certificate which indicated that she had been at Kasabola Secondary School and that she had passed her Form Two.
“Mambala brought some forms which he made me sign without allowing me a chance to read them so that I would know what they were all about,” she told the court. “A week later I just saw him bringing a gift for me and asked me to present it to my department. On the basis of this, I ceased to be a classified daily paid employee and was appointed a civil servant.”
She said that Mambala had been keeping the certificate in his custody all along because he wanted to make sure that she didn’t go “astray.” According to her, each time they had differences, he would threaten to report her to the police over the fake certificate.
“In the end, I got fed up with his threats and challenged him to report me to the police,” she said. “This was how I decided to ditch him. On top of that, the man was too old for a girl of my age, and he was already married.”
Later, in a lengthy judgement, the magistrate ruled that on the totality of the evidence adduced by the prosecution, taken within the context of the evidence adduced by the defence, it was clear that the offence of impersonating a person named in a certificate was committed.
But then, the magistrate added, the matter did not end there. The crucial issue which remained to be resolved, he said, was: who committed the offence? After analysing the evidence given by Chief Inspector Mambala as a prosecution witness and that of the accused in her defence, he concluded that the perpetrator of the crime was the former.
And in his concluding remarks the magistrate directed the police to carry out further investigations into the matter as the issue was quite serious.
“If this is how the police officers will use their powers, then God help us all,” she said, and the next thing heard was that Chief Inspector Mambala had been suspended pending investigations against him…….
The Chief Inspector looked scornfully at the girl and told her she was talking rubbish. “I’ll fix you,” he warned. “You don’t even appreciate that without me, you wouldn’t have been appointed a civil servant. You would still be a mere classified daily paid employee!”