WE KNOW THE TARGET HERE IS DR FRED M’MEMBE
…they don’t want to see him on the ballot in 2026 – Antonio
Lusaka, Saturday, September 30, 2023 ( Smart Eagles)
Socialist Party (SP) Deputy Secretary General Antonio Mourinho Mwanza has slammed the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) over their habit to use the police to oppress their opponents.
He told journalists yesterday at Chelstone Police Station that the manner in which police have handled the case involving party’s National Youth Secretary Elias Gabriel Banda is strange.
“It is extremely strange. 21:00 yesterday the legal team was here and the police had assured us that Gabriel was in custody. Later on we received intel that they had taken him to Lilayi. We went to Lilayi we couldn’t find him,” he said.
“And what is strange also is that if the suspect is moved, the rule of the police is that they are supposed to put it in their log book, to show that the suspect has been removed. There is no record in their log book to show that he has been removed, and to show that he has been moved and what time he was moved.”
Mr Mwanza said the primary concern for the party is the safety and security of Mr Banda.
He said he could only assume that Mr Banda is safe “but we are very doubtful, because we don’t know what they did to him in the night when they moved him.”
“We cannot rule out the issue of torture because this has been done before by the police, where the police have been accused of torturing suspects. We are very very worried on whether he was taken in a manner that respects his rights as a citizen or as a suspect.”
Mr Mwanza who is also former UNZASU President added that the charges Mr Banda is slapped with are absurd.
“Because to begin with, the university of Zambia is a public institution which can be accessed by anyone. There is nothing of security nature that stops any citizen from accessing the University of Zambia,” he said.
“There is no evidence, whatsoever that Gabriel Banda instigated the students, or he was at the university of Zambia when the riots were taking place…even if he were at the University of Zambia, the University of Zambia still remains a public institution. Anybody can be found at the University of Zambia.”
Meanwhile, Mr Mwanza disclosed that what is obtaining regarding the matter in question is targeted at the party president, Dr Fred M’membe.
“But we know, all this thing is centered on Dr Fred M’membe, that is the target. So Gabriel is being used to get to Dr Fred M’membe. We are very much aware that this government is cooking up a lot of cases against Dr Fred M’membe, tramped up charges, and their goal is to ensure that he is not put on the ballot paper in 2026.”
“There are schemes by this government to lock up Dr Fred M’membe on unbailable offences. And all this is part of the buildup. There are so many cases given to Dr Fred M’membe. Cases that when we go to the police or we go to court, the police are not ready to produce the evidence. We know the target here is Dr Fred M’membe and they want to get to him, and Gabriel is just one of the people that they are using to get to Dr Fred M’membe. What they are trying to do is to force Gabriel to say that Dr Fred M’membe is the one who funded the operations of the students at the University of Zambia.”
He argued that students are intellectuals with their own fresh minds and they cannot be influenced by anybody.
“We suspect that Gabriel has been tortured, that is our suspicion as a party, that he has been tortured and that the aim of that torture, according to our suspicion, is to force him to implicate Dr Fred M’membe in the riots at the University of Zambia,” he said.