Opposition UPND Members of Parliament have demanded for the immediate release of their party leader Hakainde Hichilema.

Speaking during a news briefing, Kasempa Member of Parliament Brenda Tambatama who read the statement on behalf of UPND MPS said Mr Hichilema must be released immediately as the grounds for his continuous detention are baseless.

Ms Tambatamba said the MPs are concerned over what they called savage raiding of the residence of Mr. Hichilema.

Below is the full statement

UPND MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT DEMAND FOR THE RELEASE OF PRESIDENT HICHILEMA

As Members of Parliament, of the United Party for National Development, we are gravely concerned with the levels of abuse of our Party President Hakainde Hichilema by the Patriotic Front government and its agents during the process leading to his arrest and incarceration.

The behaviour and actions of the Patriotic Front government and its police are highly contemptuous to any civil mind.

SOME OF THESE ACTIONS ARE:

1. Savage raiding of the residence of Hakainde Hichilema, a law abiding citizen and his family, damage of property, the toxic gassing of innocent families in the residence and shamefully looting of property, food and money from the house.
2. Continuous refusal by the police and state agents to allow President Hichilema access medical doctors and services despite his deteriorating health condition.
3. Denying his lawyers access to their client.
4. Denying him regular visitations by his immediate family including his son.
5. Continuous victimisation of President Hichilema’s family, friends, party members and associates
In view of the above and many other acts of abuse, we do hereby demand as follows:
President Hichilema be:
1. Allowed to receive visitors during the period he is incarcerated
2. Allowed access to his doctors and medical services failure to which they shall be held responsible for his latest state of health.
3. Allowed access to his lawyers and legal representation
4. Released immediately as the grounds for his continuous detention are baseless and merely victimisation of a law abiding citizen.

Issued by:
Brenda Tambatamba MP
Kasempa Constituency

UPND KAKOMA NOW CLAIMS POISONOUS CHEMICAL IN TEARGAS THAT WAS USED TO SMOKE HH OUT OF HIS HIDING PLACE – BY SUNDAY CHANDA, DIRECTOR FOR MEDIA, PF

Lusaka, 16th April 2017- While we have continued to restrain ourselves to commend on this matter as it is purely a Police and judicial matter, but it is clear to see that our colleagues in the United Party for National Development (UPND). Since they are determined to take a political tone on a matter that is criminal in nature, we shall equally give it a political response as follows:

Firstly, in their usual failed propaganda style, the UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma is now claiming that a poisonous chemical was used in the teargas at Mr. Hakainde Hichilema (HH) residence on April 10th 2017. We would like to remind members of the public that HH himself started this allegation as proven by text messages he kept sending to his pay masters and sympathisers while in hiding.

Secondly, HH claimed that his face, eyes, lips and indeed his skin were swollen. This news went viral in the early hours of April 11th 2017, shortly before he was apprehended and taken into Police custody.

Thirdly, to everyone’s amazement, HH was in perfect health without any bruises or swelling on any part of his body. His perfect health was further confirmed by his wife in a video recording where she categorically stated that her husband HH as she fondly calls him was in perfect health. Mrs Hakainde further narrated how she was the only one who was affected by the teargas and added that she fainted only because she is asthmatic and NOT that there was any poisonous chemical in the teargas.

Fourthly, HH, his wife and son reportedly locked themselves up in a room during the raid and it is worth noting that the trio were subjected to the same teargas. Therefore, if at all there was indeed any poisonous chemical in that teargas it should have affected all three of them. It is strange that the poisoning spared the son and mother but only affected HH yet they were in the same room!

In conclusion, therefore, we find Mr Kakoma’s allegations politically fraudulent, dumb-founded and absurd. It is indeed laughable that Charles Kakoma is trying to get the attention and sympathy of the International community with such pathetic lies. No one in their right mind would even waste time to investigate such a bogus “poisoning” claim. Clearly the UPND have nothing else to talk about. We urge them to invest their energy to reflect on their wrong doings and seek forgiveness and not keep peddling falsehoods. Members of the public are therefore advised to ignore Mr. Kakoma’s hallucinations and wait for the due process of the Law on Mr Hichilema’s matter.

Issued By: Sunday Chanda,
Director for Media
PF Headquarters

Calm has been maintained in Livingstone after Friday’s attempt by UPND members to protest following the arrest of their party leader Hakainde Hichilema.

Southern Province Police Commissioner Bonny Kapeso has told ZNBC News in a telephone interview that police have been put on full alert to ensure law and order are maintained.

Mr. Kapeso said the incident on Friday were some UPND cadres were allowed to reach the Livingstone central police is unacceptable and those found wanting in the matter will be dealt with.

He said Mr. Hichilema is not detained in Southern Province and at Livingstone central police in particular.

Mr. Kapeso has expressed disappointment with police in the tourist capital for not acting swiftly to prevent yesterday’s protest by the UPND cadres adding that his office will not tolerate officers who cannot rise to the challenge and deliver because of the

r hidden agenda.

Yesterday some UPND cadres holding placards went to the Livingstone central police station to register their displeasure over the arrest of their party leader.

The news of the death of retired Judge Nixon Banda who was serving as Commissioner at the Judicial Complaints Commission.

The last 3 months, Banda together with Judge Mushabati and Advocate Geoffrey Simukoko have been hearing the complaint for incompetence and gross misconduct of 5 Constitutional Court Judges who handled the Presidential Petition.

The JCC hearing closed on Monday and Banda and fell ill on Wednesday or so before he passed on Friday at 4am.

Banda was Director General of the ACC during the period 2004 and 2008.

Banda was appointed and ratified by Parliament in 2004 and was later retired in 2008.

This was the difficult period for the ACC as the institution was overlooked, sidelined and ignored by the Mwanawasa government.

Instead Mwanawasa’s government set up an ad-hoc body called the Taskforce on Corruption, which spearheaded the corruption fight especially against former President Frederick Chiluba, Xavier Chungu and other former government officials.

The Taskforce on Corruption was designed to be a joint commission with officers drawn from all investigative and security wings.

In the end it became a body driven by Mark Chona and Mutembo Nchito who used the powers vested in the ACC to conduct the work of the Taskforce on Corruption, leaving Banda an outsider to a process he was appointed and constitutionally mandated to wage.

Everytime Banda attempted to assert his authority, he was scandalised in the Post Newspaper and manufactured scandals on land he purchased in Chipata and Mumbwa became a constant item in the newspaper.

At the end of his four year term, Mwanawasa did not renew his contract.

Banda died on Good Friday after a short illness and will be buried in the week.

Party spokesman Charles Kakoma confirmed that Mr. Katuka whose whereabouts are not known was arrested when he went to visit their leader Hakainde Hichilema

Mr. Kakoma said reasons for the arrest were only known by the police but that Mr. Katuka like any other citizen had gone to visit Mr. Hichilema in the company of his junior officers at Lilayi training college where HH is detained.

“I can confirm that Mr. Katuka has been arrested, and his whereabouts are well known to the police. Whether he was detained at Chilanga police as speculated or not we do not know, but the police are in a better position to give reasons why has been arrested.

“And they know better where they have taken him. He was in the company of other junior party officials who went to visit our leader Mr. Hichilema at Lilayi police,” he said.

He refuted allegations that Mr. Katuka was found with a gun saying if indeed that was the case it should still not have been an issue because Zambians were not prohibited from owning guns provided they were licenced to carry firearms.

“It is not an offence to own a gun as a Zambian as long as it is acquired professionally or constitutionally. Owning a gun could not be an issue, anyone can have it,” Mr. Kakoma said.

The police were apparently concerned that any harm befalling Mr. Hichilema who was in their custody would be attributed to them, “Anything untoward resulting from their internal party squabbles would easily be blamed on the police,” a source said.

They were also concerned by the manner Mr. Katuka conducted himself as they had prohibited visits.

Attempts to get the Inspector-General to confirm the arrest went unanswered and police spokeswoman Esther Katongo, promised to revert to the Daily Nation today. Calls to Mr. Katukas’ number went unanswered as the number was out of reach.

However, police sources alleged that a gun was found on Mr. Katuka thereby raising serious security concerns.

Meanwhile police have denied that Mr. Hichilema was poisoned as suggested by UPND lawyer Jack Mwimbu.

He told the Mast newspaper that Mr. Hichilema was unwell as he had been poisoned.

Police spokesperson Esther Katongo told the Daily Nation in an interview yesterday that it was not true that Mr. Hichilema was poisoned.

“It is not true that he was poisoned. Those are unfounded accusations just trying to incite their members and we are ready to take him for tests at the hospital to show that he is not poisoned,” Ms Katongo said.

And an opposition leader has charged that Mr Mwiimbu must stop alarming the nation that Mr Hichilema has been poisoned without proof or any medical report.

Speaking to the Daily Nation in an interview yesterday, 3rd Liberation Movement president Roosevelt Tonga said that Mr Mwiimbu’s allegation had caused alarm in the country but there was no evidence to that effect.

Mr Tonga said that the UPND lawyer should concentrate on researching the charges his client was facing and stop diverting to matters that had no proof.

“It is normal for someone to feel unwell after all that transpired and the environment he was in, but assuming that he was poisoned was not the right angle to take,” he said. He said Mr Mwiimbu must provide evidence because ‘‘poisoning was not a small issue to overlook’’.

He also said that passing statements and assumptions on Mr Hichilema’s health must stop until evidence was brought forth to show that the poisoning was true.

“Such statements can cause disputes and confusion in the country especially if UPND supporters decide to react,” he said.

Mr Tonga also said that security wings must investigate the allegation because it was serious. “The State must be very careful on who is bringing out statements that have no direction and alarming the situation in the country,” he said.

Mr Tonga said that the media should also stop publishing false information ‘‘all in the interest of making a name’’.

DISMISSED Patriotic Front (PF) district security officials in Ndola have accused the provincial leadership of using them as sacrificial lambs in land illegalities that have engulfed the district.

Speaking to journalists in Ndola, Mr Joseph Chisala, a PF security official, accused the provincial executive who suspended them early this week of using emotions to discipline them.

Mr. Chisala disclosed that the district party and security officials that have been removed from various positions had been tasked by the Mayor Amon Chisenga to spearhead a task force to apprehend persons in the party involved in illegal land allocation.

Mr. Chisala charged that the group has been caught up in the web in which the mayor and the provincial chairperson Mr Kainga have clashed over the matter.

“The provincial chairperson Mr. Stephen Kainga and the mayor Mr. Chisenga, who is provincial vice chairperson of the party, have been at war with each other; the story is in the public domain.

“We were trying to assist the party in cleansing it from the land illegality that has hit the district like wild fire and we went underground to catch the culprits involved in land allocation.

“Last month we apprehended one of our party members who was suspected to be involved in illegal land allocation but we saw him released from police custody and collecting charge sheets and offer letters we found in possession of the suspect,’’ said Mr Chisala.

Another dismissed official Fyolafyola Musonda, who is youth treasurer for Chifubu constituency, stated that the group will not accept the decision taken by the party to remove them from their positions.

Mr Musonda described the action by the party as disheartening, accusing the provincial leadership of protecting wrongdoers and targeting members working to bring sanity in the party.