PF goes to court over Police disruption of party meeting
ILLEGAL PF acting Secretary General Nickson Chilangwa is seeking permission to sue the State over police disruption of the party’s meeting in Chipata, last January.
Chilangwa has since instituted judicial review proceedings against the State on behalf of the party on reasons that the police acted beyond its powers to cancel the meeting it convened in Eastern Province on January 10, 2023 for purposes of scrutinizing the party constitution.
In an affidavit in support of an application for leave to apply for Judicial review Chilangwa explained that the PF notified the Zambia police service in Chipata, Eastern Province of the intended meeting.
He said a day before the meeting which was scheduled to be held at Andrich lodge, the PF was communicated to by the officer in-charge a Mr J Ngoma proposing that the meeting be deferred to January 14, as the scheduled date was not suitable.
Chilangwa said he wrote to the police indicating that the meeting would go ahead as planned as the police had no authority to dictate on when the party would hold a meeting.
He said the party defied the orders and proceeded with its meeting at Andrich lodge but it was later disrupted by the police who ordered members to disperse as the meeting was termed illegal.
“The officers insisted that we could not hold the meeting on January 10, 2023 but that we should hold it on January 14, 2023 as they earlier advised. We reluctantly agreed to reschedule our meeting to Jan 14 ,2023 on the basis of the advice from the police and the discussions the police officers had with Mr Lubinda,” Chilangwa said.
He claimed that the officer in-charge wrote to the party indicating that the meeting slated for January 14, was indefinitely suspended due to the disorderliness and violent behavior portrayed by some PF members when they were advised to cancel the meeting.
Chilangwa said he wrote to the inspector general of the police indicating that the PF would go against the orders as the police was violating their rights by preventing them from conducting the meeting.
“On January 13, in a newspaper article by the news diggers, Eastern Province commanding officer, Lucky Munkondya vowed to disrupt any meeting which the PF will hold in the area without a permit,” he said.
“The decision of the Zambia Police to cancel our meeting was characterised by malafides as is evident from the baseless accusations against the PF by the police service in the newspaper.”
Chilangwa is seeking a declaration that the Zambia Police Service acted in excess of the powers to cancel their meeting in the Eastern Province and as such, the decision is illegal and void ab initio.
By Mwaka Ndawa
Kalemba