Police in Lusaka have served Prime TV proprietor Gerald Shawa with a search warrant saying they want to search the station’s computers and server for some footage which is the subject of their investigations.

But Shawa says it is shocking that police could rush to obtain search warrants when they would have simply requested for the footage in question.

According to the warrants seen by News Diggers! police want to search Prime TV computers for footage of a rally which occurred in Bweengwa on October 30 at which Bweengwa member of parliament Kasautu Michelo and Choma central member of parliament Cornelius Mweetwa allegedly defamed President Edgar Lungu.

“The said video footage was shown on Prime TV main news on 30/10/18 at 19:30 hours. The video footage is kept or stored in computers at Prime TV premises. You are hereby authorized and commanded in the name of the President with proper assistance, to enter the Prime TV station of Lusaka aforesaid (in the daytime), and there diligently search for the said goods, and if the same or any thereof found in the search, to bring the goods so found and also the said before this court to be dealt with, read the warrant.

The other footage police require is a news story which aired on November 18 in which Prime TV reported that some PF cadres had been given police uniforms on the Copperbelt.

But in an interview, Shawa said it was shocking that police could rush to obtain search warrants when they would have simply requested for the footage in question.

“For us, we are just surprised and disappointed. For them to come with a search warrant, it doesn’t make sense. Unless they had asked and we refused, that would make sense and we would have given them what they want. If we had refused, they would have come with the search order. We are very skeptical about it. There must be some hidden motives behind it because you don’t do that. They might even end up getting our servers or even our computers, that should be the motive behind this,” said Shawa.