ANDREW Banda says when a Head of State does not stamp his authority on his political party, cadres takeover.
And Andrew wonders why ‘small boys’ can hold the country hostage.
In an interview, Andrew said PF cadres had been conducting themselves in a violent manner for a very wrong time.
“When a Head of State does not stamp his authority on his country or his political party, cadres takeover, cadres take advantage and in this case they seem to have taken advantage. You know what happened in
Shiwang’andu where PF cadres under a command of senior government official almost brought down a chopper carrying UPND officials? You know what happened in Ndola where a group of heavily armed cadres besieged Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe airport when Miles Sampa went to launch his party? Nobody did anything about that,” he said.
“In Sesheke, PF cadres were stationed there for a month to intimidate voters. In Kaoma, a UPND member was killed, nothing has happened up to now. Recently, at Inter-continental Hotel, with CCTV cameras, well known people who were visible went and besieged and held hostage eminent lawyers, all the best legal brains in this country for over 30 minutes, which is a very serious crime; up to date there has been no arrest at all. I can cite another example among many others where Harry Kalaba was in Petauke when known PF cadres chased him out of there and fired gunshots but no arrests were made. The police can’t do anything because they are scared of losing their jobs as was the case in Sesheke,” he said.
Andrew said the PF cadres have been conducting themselves in a violent manner for the past eight years and they now feel untouchable.
“The biggest problem is that the powers that be have allowed this and it is now getting out of control. Now my appeal before it gets late, my appeal to President Edgar Lungu is, let him stamp his constitutional powers to ensure that these people are arrested, prosecuted and face the consequences of what they are doing,” he said.
Andrew said people were still waiting for President Lungu to address the nation, not Parliament, on what had been happening in the last two months.
“I think it is only fair that an independent investigations team, after all we are members of the commonwealth, like Scotland Yard, where possible even FBI, can be brought in to investigate this gassing issue since the police have failed. Let independent investigation bodies investigate and let us know who was behind this. It won’t help if we just let it die like that. If we let it die like that, there is every chance that it will re-occur, there is every possibility that it will come back again if those that are involved are not exposed. This issue must not be taken lightly, many lives have been lost something that we have never experienced before in this country,” he said.
Andrew commended the Zambia Army for bringing a volatile situation to almost normalcy.
“Off course, for the police, I know at low level they have also tried their best under very difficult circumstances but I have a problem with the police command; how have they failed to come up with
who was behind this gassing, whose resultant effects were mob justice in some cases on innocent people because the citizenry just lost confidence in the police. In a normal situation, the command should have stepped down because people have simply lost confidence in them,” he said.
On Spax, Andrew said the young man seem to be very close to the powers that be as shown by a couple of pictures.
“Now coming to this young man whom they say has been arrested, warned and cautioned for murder and other charges leveled against him. And this same young man seems to be very close to the powers that be as
pictures show he is at State function, sometimes wearing military fatigue, which is actually illegal. In some pictures, he is seen carrying powerful guns that look like M16 which is an American assault rifle, where did he get that weapon?” he asked.
Andrew wondered why young people like Spax could hold Zambia to ransom.
“How is it possible for the whole Zambia to be held to ransom by young men? How is it possible? Holding the country to hostage with impunity, somebody is condoning that! They were condoning tribalism, corruption and now look at where the country has ended up because of not listening! Exactly like in the economy, they were advised that if you borrow too much, this will happen. Where Zambia has found itself is a mess and it is irreversible. If we are not careful we’ll be ruled by these boys but I believe that the Almighty God will prevail,” said Andrew.