PROBE ACC OVER 48 HOUSES – MASUMBA

THE Anti-Corruption CommissionACC itself should be investigated following its failure to fish out the individual owning the mysterious 48 flats in Chalala residential area in Lusaka, former Sports Deputy Minister Steven Masumba has said.

Mr. Masumba said it is strange for the ACC to prematurely close the case and forfeit the houses to the state without telling the Zambian people the real owner of the properties. He said the ACC should come out clear if one of its employees is the owner of the said properties, adding that the interest of Zambians is to know the owner and not excuses being given.

“Other law enforcement agencies should investigate the Anti-Corruption

Commission because the behaviour is strange. How can they say they don’t know the owner of the flats? How do they prematurely close the case when the owner of the flats has not been found?” Mr. Masumba wondered.

He said it was shameful for the entire ACC to issue a statement suggesting that they had failed to find the owner of the flats when a simple and easy procedure can be done to find the owner.

Speaking in an interview in Lusaka, Mr. Masumba who is also former Mufumbwe Member of Parliament said that was why the ACC should be investigated to get to the bottom of the matter.

Mr. Masumba, who is also a real estate developer, said it was not impossible for the ACC to find the owner of the said property given the procedure one undergoes when constructing houses.

“I am a real estate developer myself, I know what it takes. The procedures to follow when constructing a house makes it very easy to trace ownership,” the former minister explained.

And Mr. Masumba has welcomed the call by President Edgar Lungu to reopen the matter involving the 48 flats to ensure the person behind the matter was prosecuted in the courts of the law. On August 1, 2019 President Lungu directed investigative wings to work with the ACC to ensure the case involving the mysterious houses was investigated to its logical conclusion.

The ACC closed the case against a Ministry of finance official who was suspected of owning the 48 flats and forfeited them to the state for lack of evidence linking him to the property.