Now alleged corrupt official seeks court review to retrieve seized property

An official in the alleged theft of K10 billion from the Ministry of Health has applied to the court challenging the seizure of his property by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).

Henry Kapoko of Woodlands Extension argues that the decision by the ACC to seize all the property belonging to him and innocent third parties is irrational and unreasonable.

According to the affidavit in support of the exparte application to seeking leave to apply for judicial review, Kapoko says on April 2, around 06:30 hours, officers purporting to be from the ACC went to his residence with a search warrant to search for documents. He says the search, which lasted for over eight hours, resulted into the officers seizing all the vehicles they found at his residence, some of which belonged to innocent third parties. Kapoko also says despite explaining that the vehicles were not his, the ACC officers went ahead and seized all of them and extended the seizure to other people they thought had a hand in the alleged corruption. He says the third parties are Rudo Chitengu, Murruam Chinyanbu, Mwila Kalikeka, Mabishe Notulu and a woman called Gloria.

He further says the X5 BMW vehicle seized belongs to Fred Chileshe, the unregistered van to a Mr Hassan, another unregistered Mercedez Benz CLS 500 to Rashidi while the Hummer and the Ford Ranger belong to another person.mKapoko says on April 27 he was summoned by the ACC and was questioned regarding the confiscated items and was detained without any charge at Chilanga Police Station. He claims that he was coerced into signing some restriction orders on the property purported to be his even when the officers knew that to be false and described the whole acts as being malicious.