ZAMBIA Army officer Lieutenant Nigel Mwaba has been found with a case to answer by the Lusaka High Court in the alleged murder of his lover Dr Tasila Tembo.
This was after an arresting officer summed up the prosecutions’ case saying Lt Mwaba in his statement given to the police, alleged that Dr Tembo had jumped out of a moving vehicle amid a lover’s spat over financial mismanagement and infidelity.
A military personnel also told the court that Lt Mwaba sent him distress messages claiming he and Dr Tasila were in mortal danger as they were being held hostage, over an unpaid loan facility which he obtained from a South African shylock.
Lt Mwaba is accused of murdering Dr Tembo between October 24 and 26, 2020 after she terminated their intimate relationship.
Testifying before Mongu resident judge Wilfred Muma, Colonel Elias Zulu who is stationed at Zambia Defence Services Command and Staff College in Lusaka’s Kamwala area narrated that in October, 2020 he and Lt Mwaba who was under the directorate of Army Legal Services at the Army Headquarters in Arakan Barracks, were part of a task force organised for a special operation.
He said owing to the huge task that they were assigned to perform they were expected to work during weekends but on October 24 Lt Mwaba did not report for work.
Col Zulu said the team thought Lt Mwaba was running late, not until it was 09:00 hours when he tried to get hold of him on his mobile phone but it was switched off.
“We continued trying to call him but we could not get through, until we knocked off around 18:00 hours. The following day, he still did not report for work. Around 14:00 hours, I checked my phone and found messages which were sent around 11:00 hours from Lt Mwaba,’’ Col Zulu explained. ‘’The first message was saying; ‘I tried with them, one Zambian, two South Africans for a small debt I got, they tried to squeeze something but they failed. They got my woman for a small debt and we were both blind folded. Tasila screamed; I don’t know where they have taken her. If I don’t make it, look out for me’.”
He said Lt Mwaba hinted that his hostage-takers were sent by Tumelo a South African loan-shark.
“The second message read; ‘look for my mother’s number Dr Gillian’, the third message I received was Dr Gillian’s number and the fourth message read: ‘I have been given a chance with my phone to do what I can’. On the following day around 10:00 hours, Major Kainga phoned me enquiring if I was with Lt Mwaba, I told him that he was absent even the previous day’,” he explained further.
Col Zulu said he was concerned about Lt Mwaba’s absence and he later reported to a marshal about the alarming messages he received the army officer.
Upon reporting the matter, Col Zulu said he asked Dr Kainga to call Dr Gillian who confirmed that she was the mother of Lt Mwaba and that she informed Dr Kainga that her son and his lover had gone missing.
“On Monday when we reported for work, I informed my superiors that one of the officers I was working with had not reported for work for two days. Later, I learned from the media that the police were looking for Lt Mwaba in connection with Dr Tasila Tembo’s death. On October 28, police came to Arakan Barracks and recorded a statement from me,” said Col. Zulu.
And detective inspector Patrick Changwe of Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe police station told judge Muma that he decided to arrest and charge Lt Mwaba for murder because his statement that Dr Tembo died after jumping out of a moving vehicle amid an argument, did not add up.
He said on October 27, 2020 Carol Phiri a friend of the late Dr Tembo’s, reported to the police that the deceased was abducted by her estranged lover Lt Mwaba and he was assigned to investigate the matter.
Chamgwe said he interviewed several witnesses, among them Dr Tembo’s brother, Lonjezo and his cousin.
“On October 28, 2020, I received a message that police officers at Woodlands Police Station had picked a dead body of a female person and the description given matched that of the description which was given by relatives of the missing person,’’ Changwe told the court. ‘’The information was that the body was discovered by the locals in Mikango Barracks at a traditional burial site in Nanking Army Training Centre and was deposited at UTH for postmortem.“
Changwe recounted that during the course of investigations he patronised all the places that the couple had visited prior to Dr Tembo’s death.
“I visited the Total filling station in Ibex Hill where I had an opportunity to view the CCTV footage which showed how the brother to the late was left at the service station and the vehicle drove off on October 24 around 01 AM,” narrated Changwe. “The vehicle in question was an Isuzu twin cab, grey in colour of registration number BAG 1984. The National Road Fund Agency was engaged to assist in tracking the said motor vehicle and a report was issued stating that it passed Shimabala Toll Plaza in the early morning of October 24 at 07:02 hours and was recovered in Mazabuka at a guest house where Lt Mwaba had abandoned it.”
He added that on November 28, 2020 Lt Mwaba was apprehended by military officers at Leopards Memorial Park after he was spotted frequenting his fallen lover’s burial pit.
During cross examination by Lt Mwaba’s lawyer Mauyaneyi Maribesa, Changwe could not confirm that the bone of contention between the two was that Dr Tembo constantly sent her nude photos to other men.
He affirmed that Lt Mwaba had disclosed that after Dr Tembo jumped out of the vehicle he immediately stopped, picked her up and helped her get in the car as she was bleeding profusely.
Changwe confirmed that Lt Mwaba confessed to having been confused upon seeing his lover unconscious following the incident.
After State advocate Frank Sikazwe informed the court that Changwe’s testimony marked the end of the State’s case, Maribesa of the Legal Aid Board made verbal submissions, asking the court to penalise her client for manslaughter unlike murder in an event that it found Lt Mwaba with a case to answer.
“We humbly submit that from the evidence of the 30 state witnesses, the facts and evidence before court clearly show that this case is purely that of manslaughter and not murder. We submit that if the court finds that the accused person does indeed have a case to answer it should be that of manslaughter and not murder,’’ said Maribesa.
In his ruling, judge Muma said: “I find that a prima facie case has been made against the accused person for the offence of murder and not manslaughter and I therefore put the accused person on his defence accordingly.”
Maribesa indicated that Lt Mwaba will call two witnesses to aide his case.
Lt Mwaba will exculpate himself on November 14, 2022.
Source:Zambiareports
