MUKANDILA BLASTS COPS OVER TUTWA’S MEMORIAL CANCELATION
…says Zambia is slowly turning into police state
Lusaka, Tuesday, December 12, 2023 (Smart Eagles)
Opposition Patriotic Front (PF) member Celestine Mambula Mukandila has blasted the police over the cancellation of the late Tutwa Ngulube memorial last week.
Mr Mukandila, a Lusaka lawyer said the country is now beginning to see signs of Zambia becoming a police state.
He lamented when he featured on Millennium TV’s “The Pulse” yesterday that government of saints is not allowing any form of processions.
“We all know that we were supposed to hold the memorial service for honourable Tutwa Ngulube in Kabwe. A lot of us were invited to go and join the family to just celebrate the life of Tutwa and the unveiling of the tomb,” he said.
“So it was very unfortunate to see a scenario where the police decided to approach the family and cancel the memorial service of the late parliamentarian, without giving any reason as to why they decided to do that. So the police in their usual rhetoric, they just indicated that for security reasons. So unfortunately, these are individuals who decided to give an excuse of saying for security reasons we are cancelling this, but they provided a lot of these patrol vehicles…patrolling the hotel for the former parliamentarian.”
Mr Mukandila narrated that over 300 police officers were moving round just to try and stop people from attending the memoriał.
He said it was very unfortunate because there is no reason as to why the police decided to do that.
“But clearly it shows that we are now begging to see manifestations of Zambia becoming a police state. Because clearly, the leadership of the country is not allowing any form of procession. But it is a clear show that they just wanted to intimidate Zambian citizens, they wanted to intimidate the Patriotic Front members and that in itself shows how the democratic space in this country is shrinking,” he said.
“It is extremely unfortunate, but I think the Constitution of the Republic of Zambia has guaranteed our rights and freedoms. Freedoms of assembly and all. So there was a clear breach that was witnessed as of the day before yesterday. It is unfortunate that the police are operating as though they are robots, where they are getting instructions from a remote control, forgetting that this country is a democracy. Police should remember that UPND is in office only for the period of five years, God forbid that they will even make it to another five years.”