— Chibolya township resident jailed nine months with hard labour

Chibolya township resident jailed nine months with hard labour

Lusaka, July 30,ZANIS—— Lusaka Magistrate court has sentenced one of the drug dealers recently arrested in Lusaka’ Chibolya compound to nine months imprisonment with hard labour.

Magistrate Humphrey Chitalu convicted Goliat Ng’ombe who is an unemployed to nine months imprisonment with hard labour for dealing with psychotropic substances called cannabis in the drug prone township of Chibolya township in Lusaka.

Magistrate Chitalu said he was convinced doubt that the state had proved it case beyond any reasonable doubt after hearing from both parties and convicted the accused accordingly.

In mitigation, he requested the court to exercise maximum leniency as he was a first offender and was married with a child who was in grade 10 saying if he was sent to jail the daughter might not complete school.

He said in his defense that DEC officer did not find him in possession of the drugs but found him asleep in a  ( sha-been  house where beer is sold.)

Ng’ombe  told the court that  after he asked the owner of the house to spend a night at that the house in question as he was too drunk to walk to his home, it was when the combined team raided the sha-been and arrested him.

He denied that no cannabis was found on his and that no drugs were being sold at that house in question.

The Magistrate said he had taken into account the mitigation factors but that the offense Goliat had committed was serious.

He said it was for this reason he was sending him to jail for nine months to deter other would be offenders from committing the same offence.

Ng’ombe was one of the drug dealers who were recently arrested by a combined team of officers from Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) and Zambia Police raided the notorious drug infested compound.

It alleged that Goliat Ng’ombe on May 29,2014 did traffic in Psychotropic substances namely 1.140kilograms of marijuana a herbal product of Cannabis Sativa without lawful authority.

Facts before the court are that officers from DEC received information that there was rampant drug dealing in Chibolya Compound and they acted upon that information and went to search in houses of people suspected to be dealing in drugs.

The court heard that the officers found some drugs in question after they searched in the house of the accused.