Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) has hailed the arrest of Milingo Lungu, the Provisional Liquidator of Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) for theft, and obtaining money by false pretenses and money laundering.
On Monday, the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) disclosed that it had arrested and charged Mr. Lungu for obtaining money by false pretences and money laundering involving K110.4 Million and USD 250,000.
TIZ Executive Director Maurice Nyambe said the arrest of Mr. Lungu made interesting reading as it justified calls by the civil society organisations including TIZ for the law enforcement agencies to investigate the happenings at KCM.
Mr. Nyambe said he was hoping that the DEC had done due diligence in its investigation to ensure that the matter was dealt with conclusively.
“Our hope is that Mr. Lungu would now get his day in court which will give him an opportunity to defend himself against the charges slapped on him, we are also hoping that the DEC has done their homework and done due diligence because we have seen in the past law enforcement agencies taking cases to court that were clearly not prepared for,” he said
Mr. Nyambe said some high profile cases ended up collapsing before the courts of law due to the unpreparedness of the law enforcement agencies.
He commended the action taken and that he was hopeful that the process would lay the groundwork and provide the platform for different players to give their side of the story in order for the general public to know what had been transpiring at KCM.
But Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) leader Sean Tembo argued that the arrest of Mr. Lungu by the DEC was premature as he first needed to do a proper handover of the mine either to a new liquidator or to the management for the state to be on the safe side.
Mr. Tembo warned in a statement yesterday that there would inevitably be a protracted legal battle between the Government and Vedanta going forward.
“Before arresting Mr. Milingo, Government should have first made a decision on how to proceed with the KCM issue. Even if Government decided to proceed with the liquidation process, they could have replaced the current liquidator before proceeding to arrest him for the alleged crimes,” Mr. Tembo said.
He said even if the Government halted the liquidation process, there would be a possible compensation claim from Vedanta for the period that the mine was taken away from them.
ActionAid Zambia country director Nalucha Ziba said the arrest of Mr. Lungu should serve as a deterrent to other would be offenders.
Ms. Ziba said the beauty about the legal process was that Mr. Milingo would take to court to give exculpatory evidence during trial in accordance with Article 18 of the Republican Constitution.
“We welcome the bringing to justice of anyone who commits a crime regardless of their social or political standing. Especially on corruption, financial or other economic crimes. We believe that the DEC is a competent and professional institution, which conducts a process of due diligence through thorough investigations before effecting an arrest and we believe the arrest of Mr. Lungu was a culmination of such a process,” she said.
Ms. Lungu said her only prayer was that people who had influential offices entrusted to them in the name of the republic and misconduct themselves should be punished to the full extent of the law.
