Police on the Copperbelt Province are looking for Chifubu PF member of parliament Frank Ng’ambi so that they can re-arrest and slap him with more appropriate charges for battering his wife.

Copperbelt Province Commissioner of Police Charity Katanga confirmed this to News Diggers! in an interview, saying police had already received orders from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to re-arrest Ng’ambi, but feared that the MP may have fled the country.

“We are still looking for him. If he is anywhere to be seen, we would have arrested him. We are still looking for him and the case is getting attention because when a nolle was entered, police were not aware about it. It was only served on us afterwards and the person at that particular time was on bail. So, we are looking for him and once he is located, the directive will be adhered to. In fact, the directive has already been adhered to because we are looking for him, but he is nowhere to be seen! And on the information that we have, we don’t know whether he is outside the country or something like that. So, he is not on the Copperbelt. And according to one of the things we saw, on 19th (of June), he left the country, but we don’t know whether he is back or not back. But efforts have been made to liaise with the people in Lusaka to ensure that if he is available, he will be arrested,” Katanga said.

Katanga regretted that the DPP did not communicate with the police after noticing something wrong with the indictment on Ng’ambi.

“What is difficult with us is that when the police compiles the case, it is perused by the same office of the DPP and so if at that time they saw anything wrong, they would have indicated. Police already acted on that [and] Honourable Ngambi was charged by police and was charged by the police and the person was detained at Ndola Central and was never even given a police bond until he was taken to court where the case [ended up into a nolle] at court; we don’t have police officers. A long time ago there used to be police prosecutors, but nowadays, they are under NPA (National Prosecutions Authority), which is the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution. The case was presented there and it’s on record. He appeared in court where he pleaded not guilty and the case was released by the courts themselves and on bail on 11th June. What is difficult with us is that when the police compile the case, it is perused by the same office of the DPP and so if at that time they saw anything wrong, they would have indicated,” Katanga said.

Asked what fresh charges the police would slap Ngambi with, Katanga said the office of the DPP was better-placed to explain that.

“It has come to our knowledge that a nolle was entered and it has been written to police. Let’s wait [because] this person is not yet apprehended. And remember that he was on bail after he appeared in court. He is not yet apprehended by police and we are looking for him. So, we can’t start talking about the case when the person is not yet apprehended. You are free also to call the Director of Pubic Prosecution since she is able to talk to the press. You can still ask her that question because it’s like you are asking the wrong person to say ‘so what fresh charges?’ She is the one who can tell you about the fresh charges. What we are going to tell you is if we have apprehended the person, you will be able to follow so that he appears in court,” said Katongo.