President of the opposition Patriots for Economic Progress Sean Tembo has said he is disturbed by the various reports of the defense forces arbitrary assaulting members of the public at various road checkpoints in the evening, the most recent case being employees of Hungry Lion who are said to have been removed from their staff bus and made roll on the ground in dirty water.
He said other reports include elderly women being beaten in the compounds as early as 19:00hrs in the evening.
Mr Tembo said the Government of Zambia in general and the President of the Republic in particular, must inform the nation on whether Zambia in a state of emergency and whether a curfew has been imposed across the nation.
He said if not, as it appears to be the case since no gazette notice has been published to that effect, then the security and defense wings must desist from terrorizing innocent citizens in the name of fighting the ongoing chemical gassing.
“May it be known to all those in authority that Zambians are already subjected to enough terror due to their aggravated levels of poverty and squalor, and do not deserve any additional terror whether it be by way of being chemically gassed at night or by way of being beaten for no apparent reason by members of the security and defense wings under the pretext of fighting chemical gassing. Zambia is a nation of laws. May those in authority please respect the laws of this land”, he said.
Mr Tembo has also observed that the Zambia Police are too focused on apprehending the perpetrators of mob justice than they are in apprehending the perpetrators of chemical gassing.
Commenting on the update given by Inspector General of Police Kakoma Kanganja on the security situation, Mr Tembo said this is evidenced by the fact that up to now, more than 3 months after this terror first began, the Police still have not apprehended the master-minders of this chemical gassing.
Mr Tembo said it is clear that the Police have their priorities upside down because the problem of mob justice is a direct product of the terror being perpetrated on innocent citizens by chemical gassing.
He said the Patriots for Economic Progress expect the Police to prioritize the primary problem without getting carried away by the secondary problem.
Mr Tembo has further noted that the Police have apprehended numerous suspects of mob justice.
He said this is commendable provided that the Police actually have solid evidence against these suspects and that these suspects are not arbitrarily arrested by the Police just so as to portray a false picture that they are doing something about the problem of mob justice.
Mr Tembo added that given that the majority of these suspects obviously come from a poverty-stricken backgrounds and cannot afford legal representation to exonerate themselves in case they are innocent, and also given the fact that the charges of murder leveled against these suspects are non- bailable, Police must avail these suspects of mob justice to the courts of law in the shortest possible time, so that those who are innocent can have an opportunity to exonerate themselves.
He said the Police must not be allowed to infinitely detain these suspects because that will constitute a wrong on the part of the Police.
I call our Zambian police officers as Google officers. U can’t imagine what one police did after using one cab with my wife with other people. He was the first guy to drop reporting to guard at state House. The taxi driver dropped all the people in his car. I even remember wife calling me ati the cab I used in the morning one police officer was so drunk that the beer was smelling. Just imagine that one just to accuse all the people the cab that he dropped $6000 in the taxi . So everyone in that taxi was a suspect. He even reported the matter at woodlands police.i received a call when I was at work to b told that my wife is a suspect. After investigation my people Google police never had that money. What he had was k2000 belonging to the friend which he misused and wanted to accuse…
One of the areas that our police and military need to be trained in is respect for human rights and dignity.
I have seen some sickening, disgusting behavior from them, including beating women. That is primitive and barbaric behavior only fit for a degenerate society. In a civilized culture, heads must role. I even saw a post by a pf official justifying a policeman slapping and mishandling a woman. That belongs to the stone age.
But of course these police have the example of certain arrogant and violent people that were in the news all the time for their violent behavior…until they were removed(atleast publicly) from their arrogant perch.
And people wonder why God will send people to hell. smh
These military men not civilians so you expect such.Dont horse around with soldiers you don’t know them bwana.These are not police officer they are soldiers and make the word ”SOLDIER” mmmmmmmm.
Ba Tembo we want solution and not mayoping if you have nothing to offer please stay away we don’t want politicking this time around so be serious gentle men.
@since ni since
The most advanced military in the world is in the US. They have some of the best trained, most efficient soldiers on earth. That does not turn them into savages that mistreat and beat up people.
Soldiers are not there to molest citizens but to protect them. Please do not justify wickedness with silly, baseless and ignorant words. Wait until its you, or your wife or mother or sister who will be beaten and mishandled. Then it will be interesting to hear what you will say baba.
Displine is the rule of the game some people need to be displined, no wonder we our selves are the ones breaking the law, look at the innocent people who have been killed in the name of changing the govt this is because some indisplined disgruntled selfish individuals are been used to bring havoc in our country hence this mangwams needs to be dealt with ,so when we talk about soldiers all they are doing is to bring displine to the indesplined and by the way all these are fabricated stories aiming at paiting a bad picture on the govt in place.
These are not police but soldiers who have no training in civilian matters. The hungry lion guys should just sue the state. There is money to be made here.
AND WE PROUDLY CALL OURSELVES A CHRISTIAN NATION,WHAT A SHAME!!!!! ALL THE EVIL ACTS HAPPENING IN THIS COUNTRY HAS BECOME NORMAL TO THOSE IN GOVT BECAUSE THEY DO NOT SEEM TO CARE ABOUT US OR THE EFFECTS THESE EVIL OCCURRENCES HAVE ON OUR CHILDREN.AM SO DISGUSTED!!!!
Sometimes we have to look into our eyes . These police officers are also have families member . Us the community we are also to blame for the police actions. I saw several incidents where the community call the defense officers to say there is a gassing but when officers arrived at the alleged scene and asked for people who has been gassed no one was shown and in the end they start throwing stones on Defence officers.
There are right channels to report such allegations rather than through media. Even the police can be investigated. You report to media we read and then we move on to other stories.. that doesn’t resolve anything goes it?
@since ni since, that is hog wash. Real Soldiers are there to protect the civilians and not harras them. Those soldiers who make civilians suffer don’t deserve to put on the uniform. The Zambian people expect you to display high levels of discipline and not thugerism. Look at how the Malawi military protected its people of from the indisciplined Malawi police.
The same people you call civillians are the ones who pay you through taxes. The whole day all you do is performing your boring matching and shouting yes sir , yes sir. If you want to shine with your old Soviet AK 47 and old, oil leaking tanks , why don’t you go to Nigerial and help the Nigerian Army to fight Boko haram?
The police in Zambia need proper professional training. Police brutality is illegal in any country on earth as it violates human rights. Why do you have to beat a suspect when arresting them, especially when they’re not resisting arrest or being belligerent? Everyone should be treated as innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Come on, be professional. But then again it all comes back to black people not putting much value on each other. You’ll never see a Chinese, Indian or white person being roughed up, or beaten when being arrested, as they think these people are more honorable and valuable than their fellow black people. And then there’s a problem of some undisciplined police officers who get drunk on duty. These are supposed be fired instantly, as they’re a danger to…
… society, especially given the fact that some even carry guns while drunk.