On June 11, 2013, Zambia Reports exclusively revealed President Michael Sata had issued instructions to investigative wings targetting specific lawyers including Sunday Nkonde and Nelly Mutti.
That predication on the part of Mutti came to pass last week after she was implicated in some fraud charges while Nkonde has been left off the hook after he sold off.
Nkonde has warmed up to the cartel of Post Newspaper owner Fred M’membe, Director of Public Prosecutions Mutembo Nchito and Justice minister Wynter Kabimba to avoid retribution in their schemes. But Mutti refused to give in.
Here below is the article published on June 11, 2013.
Sata Goes for Lawyers Sunday Nkonde, Nelly Mutti
The Patriotic Front regime under President Michael Sata has instructed the government investigative wings to probe selected lawyers in the country to find anything that can be incriminating on them even if it means planting something.
Top on the list are two prominent lawyers, Nelly Mutti of Lukona Chambers and Sunday Nkonde of SBN Legal Practitioners who are being watched and may be picked up in connection with fraud.
Sunday Nkonde was former solicitor general in third Republican president Levy Mwanawasa’s government and recently came face to face with director of public prosecutions Mutembo Nchito in a case of Tedworth Properties.
Mutembo Nchito and Fred M’membe plundered funds from Tedworth Properties using Bank of Zambia and have vowed to hit back at Sunday Nkonde for exposing their dirty games when the superintended the Task Force on Corruption under Levy Mwanawasa’s government.
A very highly placed source in the Zambia Police has revealed that investigations on Mutti and Nkonde were first instituted in 2011 shortly after the Patriotic Front won elections on instructions from State House.
It’s M’membe and Nchito who are pushing Sata to find anything incriminating against Nkonde because of their vindictive campaign.
The source has further revealed that Mutti through her law firm Lukona Chambers has amassed a lot of wealth most of which is believed to have come through an arrangement with the Ministry of Justice which disburses money to her law firm for onward payment to retirees some of whom it is believed may be ghost retirees.
“This is what has brought about the investigation and right now there seems to be a lot of pressure from State House on our bosses who are telling us to come up with something very quickly,” explained the source.
For Nkonde who is a State Counsel, it is also about his closeness to the Rupiah Banda administration as it is believed he may have handled some campaign money but more so that his firm’ s name came up during the so called investigations on the alleged Nigerian oil deal.
The police source says personal and business accounts of the two prominent lawyers have been under close watch since October 2011.
But it has also been learnt that these two lawyers were each offered jobs by president Sata and were supposed to be on the first list of Sata’s appointees in October, 2011.
Mutti was offered a job as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice while Nkonde was to be the Solicitor-General.
It looks like all this did not go down well with Sata and according to a source in State House, “The president wanted to know how and why these two lawyers did not want to take up the jobs he had offered them.”
It is believed Sata was particularly upset about Mutti because he had assurances from Tourism minister Sylvia Masebo that she was with them all the way. He also thought that by bringing in Nkonde, getting at the Banda administration would be made simple.
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW CHANDA CHIMBA III CONDUCTED WITH A ZAMBIA POLICE SPOKESPERSON FOLLOWING NELLY MUTTI’S ARREST LAST WEEK.
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