After 10yrs on bail ex-ZAF boss goes in 6 years

FORMER Zambia Air Force (ZAF) Commander Lieutenant-General Christopher Singogo has begun serving his sixyear jail sentence after the Lusaka High Court upheld his conviction.

In 2009 then chief resident magistrate Charles Kafunda sentenced and convicted Singogo to six years imprisonment with hard labour after finding him guilty of abuse of authority and theft by public servant.

He later appealed to the High Court and had been on bail pending determination of the appeal.

But when the matter came up for judgement yesterday before High Court Judge Mwila Chitabo sitting with judges Sharon Newa and Catherine Phiri, the court found no fault with the earlier judgement.

In handing down its judgement, the court ruled that Singogo was given an opportunity to explain to the court how he procured the generators installed at his two premises but he failed to give a convincing explanation.

The court therefore upheld the conviction in count one.

And on Singogo’s argument that the six years sentence was too harsh, the court ruled that it found no fault with the sentence and therefore would not temper with the decision of the trial court.

Judge Chitabo directed that since Lt Singogo had been on bail since 2009 when his sentence and conviction was passed, he would began to serve his sentence effective yesterday.

In this case, Lt Gen Singogo, was charged with abuse of authority of office involving two generators valued at over K85 million using ZAF money.

However, magistrate Kafunda acquitted Capt Phiri after establishing that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that he acted as he did while sharing the same criminal intent with Lt Gen Singogo who directed him to perform the said acts in the course of his duty.