JACK Kalala charges that if by any reason Hakainde Hichilema died, President Edgar Lungu would celebrate.
He described President Lungu as an intolerant “tin-pot dictator” who did not take responsibility for his wrong doings.
Kalala was president Levy Mwanawasa’s special assistant for policy implementation and monitoring.
On Saturday, Kalala issued a statement and talked about the “wanton killing” by Lusaka police of Nsama Nsama Chipyoka and Joseph Kaunda, “in cold blood,” last Wednesday.
He said President Lungu’s fear for UPND leader Hichilema is bewildering.
“It (fear) will drive him (Lungu) to plunge this country into chaos and unnecessary loss of lives. President Lungu knows that he does not stand a chance to defeat HH in a fair, free and democratic election,” Kalala said. “He knows he would lamentably be defeated. For this reason, President Lungu is doing everything possible to deny the opposition a chance to mobilise and campaign.”
He asserted that Lungu is trying hard to stop Hichilema from taking part in the August 12, 2021 vote.
“Even if it means [by] killing him! If by any reason HH died, Lungu would celebrate. He would be the happiest person on earth,” he charged.
Kalala reminded PF loyalists that one could fool some of the people some of the times but could not fool all the people all the times.
He said while PF surrogates may be fooled to believe in President Lungu’s “crocodile tears” and home affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo’s insincere and pretentious regrets on the killing of Kaunda and Nsama, “not all the people will fall for the cheap and hypocritical ploy.”
Kalala underscored that the President, Kampyongo and Inspector General of Police Kakoma Kanganja were fully responsible for the death of Kaunda and Nsama.
“The two died because President Lungu wants to remain in power against the will of the people and the provision of the Constitution. He is so scared of losing power to HH and he is doing everything possible to have him killed or to get him imprisoned,” he said. “It is for this reason that he had him arrested on a fabricated case of treason. The gassing scheme was also intended to implicate HH. If the Catholic Church had not timely spoken against it, it would have led to implicating the opposition leader.”
Kalala noted that there were so many crimes of corruption and plundering of public resources that President Lungu’s ministers and PF surrogates had been involved in.
He is shocked that current government ministers have “become instant millionaires in a country facing serious economic challenges.”
Kalala said against that background, it was baffling that President Lungu had not directed the police to investigate any of the ministers because “they serve his personal interests and do not threaten his aspirations.”
“Instead he has been busy creating fictitious cases against HH,” he noted. “President Lungu should leave HH alone! HH is a citizen of Zambia who has the right like any other Zambian to aspire to become President of Zambia. It is the People of Zambia who have a right to decide who should lead them.”
Kalala told President Lungu to be grateful that Zambians gave him an opportunity to serve them.
“Unfortunately he has failed them. He decided to abuse the privilege that had been bestowed on him. Instead of serving the people, he chose to enrich himself and his surrogates,” he said. “For this reason, the people of Zambia are duty-bound to retire him in national interest and elect someone else next year to lead them.”
Kalala pointed out the lack of justification whatsoever to maintain a person who do not only lamentably fail to serve the nation to people’s expectations, but also engages into plundering and corrupt practices, and dividing the nation – at the expense of unity.
“The responsibility of the shooting and killing of Nsama Nsama and Joseph Kaunda lies squarely on the shoulders of President Lungu, his Minister of Home Affairs Hon. Stephen Kampyongo and the Inspector General of Police, Mr Kakoma Kanganja,” Kalala said. “There is no way the policemen could have acted in the manner they did without the express orders from their superiors, namely the President, the minister and the Inspector General.”
He noted that it was a fallacy and mockery for President Lungu and Kampyongo to give statements regretting the sad incident “when it had their full blessing.”
Kalala argued that police officers could not have gone to the scene with guns loaded with live bullets, without permission from higher authority.
“No way!” Kalala refused. “The guns and armoured vehicles the police used had been purposely acquired to serve the ultimate purpose of killing people. Those armoured vehicles were moved out of their usual storage places for a reason.”
He stressed that Kaunda’s and Nsama’s killing “had express authorisation from the President, the minister and the Inspector General.”
“It is a scheme to instill fear in the public so that the PF regime could have a free hand to carry out their dirty plans they have put in place to rig next year’s elections,” he said. “The gassing is part of part of that nefarious scheme.”
Meanwhile, Kalala said President Lungu’s statement that he did not expect Hichilema to go with supporters to the police is “irrational, nonsensical and silly, to say the least.”
“If PF cadres could give solidarity support to accused ministers appearing in courts, how does he expect UPND cadres not to give solidarity to their leader? Did President Lungu send riot policemen to disperse PF cadres who had accompanied ministers to court? No!” Kalala said.
“He sent policemen to disperse UPND cadres because he is scared of HH and he has ill intention towards his political opponent.”
Kalala insisted that President Lungu, Kampyongo and Kanganja have killed innocent citizens before and that they would kill more people to maintain themselves in power.
He said it was for that reason that they had acquired military-grade weapons and anti-riot equipment for the police to use against harmless and unarmed citizens.
“This has never happened in the history of our country,’ he noted. “Next year, before the elections, the nation should expect more brutality and deaths from the PF regime led police. They have recruited PF party cadres into the police and trained them to mercilessly kill innocent citizens.”
Kalala said President Lungu was very much aware of his evil schemes.
“That is why he has on many occasions appealed to the church to pray for peace to prevail in the country, hoping for divine intervention to stop the nefarious and evil schemes his regime has put in place,” he charged. “Unless he is stopped, he will kill more people in the name of maintaining peace. And typical of him, [he will] blame others for it!”
He described President Lungu as an intolerant “tin-pot dictator” who did not take responsibility for his wrong doings.
“He uses brutality to intimidate and scare people who do not agree with him. He is a bad and heartless person who pretends to be humble and nice!” said Kalala.