POLICE in Ndola have arrested a 50-year-old man for impersonating Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary Augustine Kasongo and going to different companies to ask for money.

Copperbelt acting Police Commanding Officer Tresphord Kasale said the suspect, Tascious Mutale, had for several months been trooping to different companies and calling the proprietors of the said companies and individuals, soliciting financial help.

Kasale said Mutale allegedly collected a lot of money from different companies after claiming that he had a bereavement and needed financial help.

“I would like to confirm that we have today arrested the man who has been impersonating that he was Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary in the name of Augustine Kasongo. He used to go to different companies and also phoned the proprietors of those companies asking for money, and it is established [that] he got a lot of money,” Kasale said.

Kasale said other companies were in the process of giving Mutale the money after promising him that they were preparing something reasonable because what he asked for was too little for a Permanent Secretary.

He said at some point he could ask for as little as K1,000 and K4,000, something that prompted the companies he was asking the money from to start having second thoughts.

Kasale said Mutale is currently detained at Ndola central police station and would appear in court soon.