DOUGLAS Syakalima has asked if President Edgar Lungu kills citizens willy-nilly apart from as established by law.
He is also distressed that in all the league tables of bad things, Zambia is topping.
Syakalima is UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema’s senior advisor and the Chirundu member of parliament.
He called The Mast on Monday and posed some questions to President Lungu.
“When people said Edgar Lungu wants to kill HH…Remember he said ‘I don’t want to kill HH. If I had wanted, I could have done that a long time ago.’ My question which I posed and I still pose – and even [Isaac] Chipampe must answer me – is that does Lungu kill people?” Syakalima asked.
“He said if I had wanted I could have done that a long time ago, confessing that he kills or he can. Are Presidents given power to kill citizens? He has not answered me and I’ll pursue this to its logical conclusion.”
He indicated that what he knew was that the police have killed in President Lungu’s name.
“They killed [Mapenzi] Chibulo, they killed Vespers [Shimunzhila], they have loaded a bullet in the buttocks of our member (Peter Masani). They do all this in his [President’s] name!” he said.
“But for him to directly say that…I want an answer. This question will not finish until it’s answered; Does Lungu kill people? Does he have the authority that he can kill people, that he can kill citizens if he wants?”
Syakalima, however, pointed out that when judges sentence people to death, the President must sign a warrant.
“That is by as law established! But for him to say that if he wanted he could have killed HH a long time ago, who is he? Who is he to decide on the life and death of a human being, when he is just a human being as well? Only God can recall you!” Syakalima said. “I know that one time he had said that he is the alpha and omega. Again, blasphemy! We know that he was blasphemous. But for him to come in the open to say what he said about killing…Is he telling us that Presidents kill?”
He continued asking: “where has he found that some Presidents killed people wantonly?”
“This question must be answered before he leaves office next year. Otherwise it will be asked to him as ‘how many did you kill?’ He boasted that if he wanted; meaning that he has all the powers,” Syakalima insisted. “In the name of the President, civil servants do things. So, in his name, crimes have been committed. He is answerable to that also. But the biggest thing is where he uttered the words [of killing] himself.”
He asserted that instead of looking at corruption that had endemically spread in Zambia, President Lungu was talking about how to fix a political opponent.
Syakalima regretted that Zambia was now rated the third hungriest country in the world.
“But he wants to kill innocent people. In all the league tables of bad things, Zambia is topping. Be it corruption, poverty, hunger, disease, squalor, ignorance – it is Zambia topping up the league table,” he complained. “Zambia has the second worst performing currency in the world. But Lungu is looking at who will I fix next. You are fixing yourself, Lungu! Mark my words; you are fixing yourself. Many dictators have ended up fixing themselves.”
Meanwhile, Syakalima has told the President to be on alert and that he should not allow: “your mouth to be loose.”
“He is a very lucky man. Most presidents leave their presidency and then I come to protect them, because I never warned them. [Dr Kenneth] Kaunda, I never used to advise him and all the other presidents I never openly advised them,” he said. “[But] Lungu is a lucky man that he has a person who is advising him from outside the people that he doesn’t even know. What I can tell you is that Lungu doesn’t know anyone of those that are around him.”
Syakalima has a premonition that President Lungu’s inner circle would abandon him, once his presidency ends.
“Next year they will run away from him. Let him not run to me! I have been openly advising him. If he is less intelligent and not taking my advice, that is his fault. But I will keep on telling him,” said Syakalima.