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A Ndola-based woman in Zambia, who claims that a member of parliament, Bowman Lusambo, fathered her four children has submitted that there is a high likelihood that the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) test to ascertain the children’s paternity may be tampered with.
Mercy Cowham, in an affidavit filed in the Lusaka High Court in support of Lusambo’s application for the four children to undergo DNA tests, stated that while she did not wish to oppose the application for a paternity test, she was deeply concerned about the safety and security of the DNA samples and where they would be taken for testing.
According Zambia Observer, Mercy stated that there was a high likelihood that the same may be tampered with, given the media attention this matter has attracted and the many parties interested in the outcome of the case.
“In the premises, to ensure protection of DNA samples and entire DNA testing process, I am of the view that the same should be a court-supervised DNA test where neither myself nor the plaintiff will know the laboratory chosen to conduct the DNA test, except the court and the results will only be communicated directly to the court,” Mercy stated.
She added that she was agreeable to a paternity test to be carried out as it would help prove that Lusambo is the father to her children.
“I am willing to contribute towards the expense of the DNA test, which expense can be communicated to the parties by the court once the court has appointed the institution(s) that will conduct the DNA test,” Mercy stated.
And Mercy stated that it was not true that Lusambo did not know her at all because they have known each other for a very long time now.
“I have been in an on-and-off s3xual relationship with the plaintiff from 2014 to date and it was during this time that the four children I have with the plaintiff were conceived,” she said. “During the subsistence of our relationship, the plaintiff and I would meet at Ngweshi Lodge in Ndola but sometime in 2017, the plaintiff rented a house for me in Kansenshi and Ndeke area in Ndola and he would occasionally visit me.”
Last month, Lusambo filed an affidavit in support of an application for a paternity test.
He stated that a DNA test was the only sure way that the paternity of the children would be ascertained and prayed that the order for DNA be granted in the interest of justice. (TRIBUNE)
