Allegedly four visibly drunk officers from the Anti Corruption Commission on Sunday stormed Mass at St Kizito Catholic Parish in Lubuto, Ndola and interrogated Parish Priest Fr Rapheal Chanda over the Church’s links to Bowman Lusambo.
According to some parishioners who witnessed the incident, the officers who were smelling of alcohol introduced themselves as investigators from the ACC Headquarters in Lusaka and wanted to establish how much Mr. Lusambo spent on building a toilet at the parish.
The officers later forced themselves into Fr. Chanda’s private residence and insisted on interrogating him.
The officers also wanted to interview some Choir members on how much they received from Mr. Lusambo prior to the elections.
Fr. Chanda however refused to respond to questions from the officers advising them that Church members built the toilet themselves.
The ACC last week recorded a warn and caution statement from Mr. Lusambo over allegations of bribing voters in Kabushi during the August 12, 2021 General Elections.
Allegations are that between 1st February, 2021 and 14th August, 2021, Lusambo did offer and actually gave K20,000 each to three choir groups from different Churches in Kabushi Constituency and gave a bag of mealie meal to each choir member.
Further that between the same period, Mr. Lusambo did offer and actually gave K300 each to about 100 to 150 women of Saint Kizito Catholic Church after attending mass, a day before elections.
But some church members have warned the UPND government to stay away from the Church.
“Where do they even get the audacity to force their way into Priest’s House? Us we respect our priests, if they’re wrong in any way, let them be handled with respect. If UPND doesn’t love God, us we love and respect the Church. We don’t want the nonsense we witnessed yesterday (Sunday). They almost ambushed my Parish Priest. They’re a cursed government,” one of the Church members said.