Senior chief Mushili of Ndola rural has intervened in the scandal in which Copperbelt Province Police Commissioner Mary Tembo is alleged to have grabbed land from a widow in Masaiti district.
Masaiti District Commissioner Joseph Mwambana has said the chief is trying to mediate in the dispute concerning the land which is alleged to have been forcibly wrestled from a widow identified as Mrs. Longwe after the death of her husband.
According to sources, chief Mushili and Tembo are now trying to pacify the widow by allocating her 30 hectares of land while the police commissioner will retain the huge chunk of land that she has wrestled out of her possession.
The source said Chief Mushili is trying to build a case that Mrs. Longwe’s late husband did not register the land into his name before he died despite every villager having known as a matter of fact that it was his possession.
However, Mrs. Longwe’s family have rejected the overtures from senior chief Mushili which they deem as acts of betrayal and they feel being exploited just because they are in a vulnerable situation.
According to sources, Tembo is alleged to have obtained the land from a widow named Mrs. Longwe of Mukolwe village in Ndola rural’s Masaiti area and intimidated her if she ever attempted to resist.
Tembo is reported to have used her senior position in the Police Service to throw her weight around and intimidate the government officials as well as prevail over the local chief in order to obtain the land.
The source disclosed that as one of adult children of the widow attempted to resist the grabbing of land, he was slapped with tramped-up charges and thrown in police cells where he languished before being released. The source said this was an attempt to intimidate Mrs. Longwe.
When the issue was put to Tembo, she made strong denials of the land wrangle in which she is directly implicated.
Tembo said the only land she owns is in Lusaka West where she has built a house and not anywhere in Ndola.
“I don’t own any land in Ndola as you know I came here last year. I spend most of my times in the office. When I came here I have been handling issues to do with land for people of this area. Now can it make sense that I can also be part of the problem by grabbing land when I try to provide a solution for them?” she asked.
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