By ALICE NACHILEMBE
Copperbelt Police Commissioner Charity Katanga says falsehood is negatively affected law and order in Chingola yesterday.
Ms Katanga said falsehood is impacting negatively on the peace of the communities.
Speaking on Kokoliko Radio today, Ms Katanga said yesterday’s riots and looting that characterized Chingola were due to falsehood which went out that one of the hackers had been arrested.
She said what sparked the riot was news that suspect behind ritual killing was at Chiwempala police.
“When in actual sense police from Luashya came to pick the suspect to lead them to other suspects in Chingola. The suspect as he was leading police to others suspects within Chingola, he jumped off a moving police vehicle and members of the public helped in apprehending him.
“The suspect was behind the stealing Zamtel cables in Luanshya and had escaped lawful custody in Luanshya but was apprehended in Chingola. But when he was apprehended the members wanted to burn him. He was only rescued by the police from Luashya with the help of Chingola police and took him to Chiwempala police where false word went round that the suspect was allegedly mentioning the names of the business executives of Chingola as the ones that sent him to hack people and they went on looting the shops,” she said.
Ms Katanga said a false alarm went out and the community vented their anger at Chingola business executive Isaac Mukondya popularly known as Kamwefu and they looted his shops, gutted three of his houses, three vehicles and two houses belonging to his employees.
The Commissioner of Police has called for through investigations over the riots because it seemed like it was a well-planned move as the events taking place were not ordinary.
Ms Katanga said police will not tolerant lawlessness when people are committing crime as law breakers will face the wrath of the law.
She has called on members of the public to cooperate and work with the police by providing information of anything suspicious or unusual in the community.
Ms Katanga said police can’t work in a vacuum without information and members of the public are the ones with information so they should be free to give information as they are protected.
She has urged the residents to be each other’s keeper as the happenings are happening in their own eyes.
Ms Kantanga said the three incidents of hacking are of similar pattern and it is not Zambian.
“It seems the hacking is driven by the spillage of blood as such we need concerted effort from the police and the community to arrest the crime. We need to get hold of one of these groups doing this. The police are on the ground and the people should also come on board by providing information and civic leaders should also come on boarder to fight this,” she said.
She said that there is no excuse for lawlessness when crime has been committed.
Ms Katanga has appealed to the people to remain calm and continue with normal duties as the situation is under control and the police are still on the ground doing patrols.
The places where the riots took place was in Lulamba, Chiwempla, Chikola and Mwaiseni.
Ms Katanga said three people were shoot from the incident and 163 were in custody
Today, Chingola is peaceful.
