Former Information Minister Chishimba Kambwili says Copperbelt Province Police Commissioner Charity Katanga is lying that she sent only one officer to his house.

Yesterday, Katanga dismissed Kambwili’s complaint that there were 25 officers at his house saying police only sent one plain-cloth officer to after they heard that he was planning to hold a press briefing.

“We can never harass him. He should not drag the name of the police to the media. It’s not true that police officers were trailing him or manning his house because we don’t have enough manpower to do so. Today [Sunday], we received information that the former minister wanted to have a press briefing. So, as per routine we sent a plain-cloth officer to check the situation, we didn’t send armed officers,” said Katanga.

But in an interview today, Kambwili wondered whether Katanga was saying those who were at his house were lunatics.

“Following media reports of what Copperbelt commander has said is that all of us who were at my house yesterday are mad people. We are lunatics where we were seeing 25 police officers when it was only one plain police officer. And that is what Katanga is telling us that we are lunatics that we can see one police man turned into 25 police officers,” Kambwili said.

“But the only thing I can tell Katanga is that only the truth shall set us free. And that is why I am now getting worried that my life is at stake because if the police commissioner can lie, to mislead people with impunity, then there must be something underlying in that is going on.”

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Kambwili also revealed that he had lodged in a complaint with the Luanshya commanding officer who expressed shock at the presence of police at his house.

“And for your own information, I personally lodged in a complaint with the officer commanding at Luanshya and when I called him, he totally refused that police were not even aware of anything and they did not send anybody to my home. Now if the police commissioner in Luanshya says they did not send anybody, then the commissioner (Katanga) says they sent one police officer, that should leave you to decide who is telling the truth between us and police. I called the officer commanding and asked “what are your officers doing at my place? What have I done?’ And he told me, ‘honorable I am not aware, we have not sent anybody’,” said Kambwili.
“Now Katanga says they sent one officer, where did that same officer come from? Luanshya? Ndola? Where? So us we are lunatics, they are normal people, that is all I can say.”