{"id":52485,"date":"2025-01-03T16:04:54","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T16:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/drunk-zambian-policeman-freed-13-suspects-to-celebrate-new-year-official-says\/"},"modified":"2025-01-03T15:04:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T15:04:17","slug":"drunk-zambian-policeman-freed-13-suspects-to-celebrate-new-year-official-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/drunk-zambian-policeman-freed-13-suspects-to-celebrate-new-year-official-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Drunk Zambian policeman freed 13 suspects to celebrate New Year, official says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Detective Inspector Titus Phiri, the Team Leader at Leonard Cheelo Police Post under Kanyama Police Station, reportedly freed the suspects after seizing the cell keys from a female officer on duty. <\/p>\n<p>According to police, the incident occurred on December 31, 2024, at around 10:00 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPreliminary investigations reveal that Detective Inspector Phiri, in a state of intoxication, forcibly seized cell keys from Woman Constable Serah Banda,\u201d said Rae Hamoonga, the Police Public Relations Officer.<\/p>\n<p>Phiri allegedly unlocked both the male and female cells and instructed the 15 suspects in custody to leave, stating they were free to \u201ccross over into the New Year.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Thirteen of the detainees took the opportunity to escape. The officer fled the scene shortly after, disappearing into a nearby compound.<\/p>\n<p>Among the escapees are individuals charged with offences ranging from theft and assault to drug possession and gender-based violence.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities have launched a manhunt to recapture the fugitives and are urging the public to provide any information that could assist in locating them. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the suspects remain at large. A docket of the case has been opened, and a manhunt has been launched,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n<p>The Zambia Police Service condemned the actions of Detective Inspector Phiri, reaffirming their commitment to maintaining law and order.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDecisive action will be taken against any officer found to be abusing their authority or acting contrary to the law,\u201d Hamoonga assured.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-79783 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/evelyn_hone_student.jpg\" alt=\"Detective Inspector Titus Phiri, the Team Leader at Leonard Cheelo Police Post under Kanyama Police Station, reportedly freed the suspects after seizing the cell keys from a female officer on duty.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Zambian police officer is in custody after allegedly aiding the escape of 13 detainees on New Year\u2019s Eve while intoxicated, the Zambia Police Service confirmed in a press statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000079782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-52485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000079782,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/evelyn_hone_student.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/evelyn_hone_student.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/evelyn_hone_student.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/evelyn_hone_student.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/evelyn_hone_student.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/evelyn_hone_student.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000079782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52485"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=52485"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=52485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}