POLICE in Monze have arrested five suspected United Party for National Development (UPND) cadres in Bweengwa Constituency and charged them with malicious damage to property.
The five, who were allegedly involved in acts of violence on February 13 this year after President Edgar Lungu addressed a rally in Bweengwa Constituency, have since appeared in court.
They all pleaded not guilty to the charge of malicious damage to property.
The suspects have been accused of taking part in the Bweengwa incident, which left three police officers injured and also damaged some motor vehicles.
Appearing before the Monze magistrate’s court, the five namely, Hikabondo Hamukona, 39, Sulwe Himalambo, 20, John Himalambo, 20, Mukuwa Lwendo, 16, and Muune Lwendo, 18, pleaded not guilty to the charge of malicious damage to property.
The accused, all of Monze, have been granted bail of K10,000 each with a working surety.
The court adjourned the matter to March 11 this year for commencement of trial.
The five were apprehended on Monday and later appeared in court for plea the same day.
Southern Province commissioner of police Godwin Phiri, who confirmed the arrests, said the suspects were still remanded in police custody.
“But the suspects are still remanded in custody, although bail has been granted,” Mr Phiri said.
Several motor vehicles were stoned while the road was blocked with civil servants and journalists being held captive for hours on the material date after Mr Lungu addressed a meeting in Bweengwa.
And the Ndola airport PF thugs? Let’s be fair guys.
YOU MEAN YOU DON’T READ YOU JUST COMMENT? DIDN’T YOU READ THAT THE NDOLA AIRPORT WHERE ARRESTED AND SIMILARLY GOING THROUGH THE SAME PROCESS?
This was unusually swift, Is this because it is within the area of people PF dislikes? Or there more to it than the eye meets. We have had bad flashes of violence and arrests have taken months and years in some cases, what has changed this time around?
@ZedpoorPeople please follow the logic:
The president had just addressed a rally in Bweengwa Constituency – this means the whole area was packed with security and intelligence wings of government. It was very easy to track the perpetrators of violence in that manner.
On the other hand for Ndola Airport incident – Miles Sampa was travelling incognito in a private hired jet from Proflight. Only few people from his inner circle knew his itinerary. As such there were no security agents at the airport to track down the perpetrators of violence. Security at Airport is not adequate to deal with unprecedented cadre misbehavior.
Since few people knew about Sampa’s trip it would be wise to conclude that violence was caused over pay issues by same cadres he hired to protect him.
shallow thinking at it’s best . if someone was wrong, you also want to be sure?
Lesa Kabumba ewakwate shiwa lyakulekelesha. We Zambians have suffered for a long time due to politics of poverty and bad leadership which is aimed at disadvantaging ordinary Zambians. God has a final say and He WILL render us this this year. Who can trust African presidents especially Presidents like Edgar Lungu who ascended to power through corruption and now he wants to use the suppression tactic in order to extend his treacherous rule ? He goes to Southern Province with a hidden agenda with his dirty minions in order to dent the good image of the people there. Edgar, God Almighty WILL crush in you sooner than you can imagine.
ARREST MORE IT WILL BE UNFAIR TO JUST GET FIVE OUT OF A BIG NUMBER. FIVE VILLAGERS KEEPING AND DESTROYING VEHICLES ?
Comment: Why the suspects are still in police custody after being granted bail by the court? Is that justice? Can the Police respect the court? Here is Malawi is the same problem with the Police as they fired tear gas last night to the Malawi Congress Party(MCP) Supporters as they vowed to sleep at Police station inorder to force the Police to realese its Youth Director who handed over himself to Police.
The problem of poverty is closing eyes where you should open. When pipo who damaged public property are arrested you call lungu a bad leader and pray that HH who sold our companies and pocketed our money replaces him. Do you know that God knows lungu and HH better than you do?
Officer: We are looking for suspects who where involved in the Bweengwa fracas
Bweengwa residents: What are the descriptions of the people you are looking for?
Officer: They are Tonga and the ideal situation would be to arrest ALL Tonga’s but 5 will do, for now anyway
Bweengwa residents: But that is is very general most people here are Tonga can you be more specific
Officer: Actually any Tonga will do and they can belong to any party but they MUST BE Tonga. We need to satisfy our quota prescribed by his Holy Humbleness (hands together when walking) Pastor Kadansa Lungu so we can go home.
Bweengwa residents: Pesi ta tuyandi muntu oyu Pastor Lungu
What about someone who stole a widow’s benefits?
Stealing from windows in PF is party of Dochi kubeba syndrome.
@5.1 His Holy Humbleness,
LOL.
Doom tell us about someone who stole a clients money but was elected president. That is a fact and not hearsay. I assume you voted for him. But then you want to concentrate on someone who wasn’t even part of government when privatization was being done. People in charge were Chiluba, Sata et al. So please be serious with what you say.
Comment: Where they on the run 4 the cops to take two weeks to arrest them?.
Be fair Chillax creating false charges is a lot of work, it will be interesting when we get to the point where the so called hostages and other victims give evidence in court. I am so looking forward to this case.
Comment:I meant Were.
Hibwengwa
How come you have forgotten about False Imprisonment when only the other day you alleged that those boys had kept hostage a ZANIS team and the like? Or were you simply politicking as we suspected? For how could it be that a police sting team could stage a rescue operation and yet walk away with none of the unarmed villagers?
Have you forgotten that Poilce fire warning shorts from a distance to give ample time for thugs to take off so that there is no engagement in case the thugs are armed? UNGASIYE BANA!
Ba microscope how do police fire warning SHORTS (why not warning SKIRTS kkkkk), its SHOTS iwe. Another correction is that while it is true Zambia Police ZP (the police we had before September 2011) would fire warning shots but the current PF Police PFP (AKA PF Military Wing PFMW) shoot to kill. Comprende. Remember to keep your hands together to show humblesness when walking viva dictatorship viva
How do they capture so many UNZA/CBU students in similar situations?
Ha ha ha! Microscope siumvela. Boma iyopa kufa kansi!
Hi! Ha! Hi!…sounds like a Chinese Kung fu movie.
i cant imagine a 16 year old over powering a govt official in his 30s – 40s lol seems funny
I urge the police to be very firm with these upnd terrorists who went to far by breaking property and abducting civil servants. These tonga terrorists are not diferent from boko haram. Let the govt handle them with an iron fist so that it acts an a deterant to other would be terrorist. This is the first time in the history of Zambia that a group of terrorist went to the extent of abducting civil servants.
I urge the police to be very firm with these upnd terrorists who went to far by breaking property and abducting civil servants. These tonga terrorists are not diferent from boko haram. Let the govt handle them with an iron fist so that it acts an a deterant to other would be terrorist. This is the first time in the history of Zambia that a group of terrorist went to the extent of abducting civil servants.
I urge the police to be very firm with these upnd terrorists who went to far by breaking property and abducting civil servants. These tonga terrorists are not diferent from boko haram. Let the govt handle them with an iron fist so that it acts an a deterant to other would be terrorist. This is the first time in the history of Zambia that a group of terrorist went to the extent of abducting civil servants. Infact these terrorists dont even deserve to be granted bail because they are a danger to our national security.
I urge the police to be very firm with these UNPD terrorists who went to far by breaking property and abducting civil servants. These tonga terrorists are not diferent from boko haram. Let the govt handle them with an iron fist so that it acts an a deterant to other would be terrorist. This is the first time in the history of Zambia that a group of terrorist went to the extent of abducting civil servants. In fact these terrorists dont even deserve to be granted bail because they are a danger to our national security.
Do they have party ID cards as demanded by their president.. they may have just been insane kabovas trying to be terrorists,, well positioned to be labeled UPND.
The PF circus continues!
What technique did the pf police use to identify these people as possible suspects when they had earlier told the nation that it was not possible to identify the perpetrators due to the fact that it was dark? Unless pf police is telling us that they are got this information from a snitch in the village after offering him/her something shiny, am sure the criteria been used is simply requesting for names of those who didn’t attend the pf rally by chagwa, that’s the only way a 16 years old boy can find himself in such a situation.
Police are trained to investigate…hence the CID. I’m not surprised at the age. A 16 year old boy can be very adventurous.
Follow the story it will be thrown out of court. We have seen this movie before. Clueless governments use these tactics all the time. The likes of Mugabe, Museveni, Nkunreziza, Kagame etc. do similar things all the time.
From the names it looks like the police went to two huts and picked up whichever males they found who looked like they were able to throw stones. Too coincidental, two pairs of people with the same surname. They already admitted it was dark they couldn’t see anyone so how are they going to prove the charges in court. Besides the IG says he has transferred the senior officers from Southern to Eastern and Lusaka so we have new people in charge. This is just another red herring from a clueless government or is it cruel!!!
Mwebantu@ Do not defend what cant be defended records are there to show. More over we can still use circumstantial evedence. The sadest part of it is that even if records were produced you will still not believe and you will take it as political persecution. Dont worry nature will punish him better than courts.
good move manga the thugs .boma ni boma
indeed it is very funny, the two brothers are police enermies from a long time ago due to the fact that the police has always had issues with this family of which this family has almost always won the police in court.im not surprised at this foolish useless power of deduction employed here.Any reasonable person knows this case flopped the moment it was indicted.Lo and behold !how do these people five of them over power the whole contingent?cmon cops dont embarass yourselves like this, i know one over zealous cop in monze by the name of Chimbala,this cop if at any rate could have been there at Bweengwa could not have been baptised as alleged by these Tonga bulls what more 3 cops?
A rescue team indeed, a 16 year old boy surely takes hostage government workers. This is interesting. But my question is where were the police that escorted kadansa.they went away living other officials.
Police threw teargas in student rooms so that those who come out are arrested. They have been charged with rioting and yet were in their rooms and were sheltering from the violent police. How many times have we seen innocent citizens being arrested? Is this being christian or satanic?