LET THE POLICE FIGHT LEGITIMATE CRIME – DR M’MEMBE
…as he blasts the Government against turning the police into a political tool
KANAKANTAPA, Sunday, October 1, 2023 ( Smart Eagles)
While visiting Gabriel Banda, the Socialist Party (SP) national youth secretary who remains detained “unfairly” at Kanakantapa Police Post in Chongwe, party president Dr Fred M’membe slammed government over using police officers as a political tool.
In trying to understand why the youthful leader was moved from Chelstone Police Station to the one in question, Dr M’membe said the alleged offense was committed in the Lusaka District and not Chongwe.
The opposition leader lamented that Mr Banda was driven in the middle of the night at very high speed, with guns firing throughout.
He added that if the former UNZASU president had high blood pressure, he would have gotten stroke.
“What was the purpose of all that? To torture him? Mentally, psychologically? To scare him? That is what we can assume. Is that the way to police? Is that the way for the police to control crime? Wherever the police has been used as a political tool, the outcome has been disastrous,” he said.
“The colonial masters tried to use the police as a political tool, they failed, they didn’t succeed. Successive Zambian governments have tried it, none of them has succeeded. The police is not a good political tool to use to control politics, or to get a favorable political outcome.”
Dr M’membe implored government to let the police fight legitimate or genuine crime.
“When they start going to young people like Gabriel, then you know they have got a bigger problem in their hands. Because all over the world, it is young people who are quick to rise against unjust conditions that exist. They are the ones that bring the changes that we see in the world,” he said.
“If somebody is not revolutionary as a young person it will be very difficult for them to be revolutionaries in old age. Gabriel is a leader. He is a former UNZASU president, he was elected president, by other young people. He is the general secretary of our youth league, again elected by young people.”
The SP President said Mr Banda is an unstoppable leader.
“He is a leader of his comrades, he is a leader of our party, he is a leader of our country. No matter what type of intimidation, no matter what type of harassment which they want to subject him to, they will not succeed. They are actually just hardening them. They are hardening these young people. They are making them more rebellious, they are making them more revolutionary than they want. They should not be allowed to be given another five years in 2026, they will destroy this country,” he said.
“They are negating anything that this country stood for. We were hoping for more, better respect for human rights, for the freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, we are not seeing that. What we are seeing is an increase in violation of human rights. We are seeing more and more people detained in police cells for more than 24 hours, which is an illegality. That must be challenged before the courts of law. They have gotten away with it with impunity, it can’t continue.”
Meanwhile, the opposition leader stressed the need for people to start taking legal action against unjustified detention beyond 24 hours.
“They have detained Gabriel here from Thursday, unjustifiable. They could have given him police bond; they have denied him police bond. They could have taken him to court on Friday, hey didn’t want to take him to court,” he said.
“The charges that they have put against him are very frivolous, they know themselves. Again, it’s a case of abuse of power. It is simply abuse of power. If this is not tyranny, what is it? If that is not repression, what is it? If this is not violation of human rights, what is it?”