Slam frontman missing from drug rehabilitation centre

Zamani Ibrahim

KUALA LUMPUR: Slam frontman Zamani Ibrahim (pic), whose drug abuse made as much news as his hits like Gerimis Mengundang, has fled from a rehabilitation centre in Bukit Tunku.

The 44-year-old, who had been undergoing treatment at Rumah Pengasih in Jalan Syers for the past eight months, was said to have escaped in a “white car” at 10.26pm on Friday.

Zamani did not take any of his belongings with him, not even his MyKad, money or his beloved guitar, said Pengasih president Datuk Yunus Pathi.

“It’s really a shock for us. Why did he have to do that?” he said.

Shortly after disappearing, Yunus said Zamani had called him, indicating that he was safe and that he wanted to meet up with him tomorrow.

Apart from this incident, Zamani had been following through with the rehabilitation programme with no kinks, Yunus said.

However, the singer refused to participate in several programmes due to a bad hip which he was being treated for.

Yunus said Pengasih had discussed with Zamani’s family on keeping the vocalist at the centre until December or January 2016, as they work on reintegrating the former addict back into regular society.

“That was two weeks ago. I could see that after that he had a change in behaviour. He seemed under pressure.

“We would ask him ‘are you okay’ and he would just say yes. We don’t know what is going on,” he said.

Zamani was arrested at his house in Taman Keramat in January for possessing what was believed to be 1.2g of heroin.

In May, he was fined RM5,500 in a magistrate’s court and he had later checked into the rehabilitation programme.