Sat, 17 Jun 2017 11:01:03 +0000
By ANNIE ZULU
SOME church mother bodies have demanded for the release of UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema.
They have charged that Zambia was now eminently qualified to be branded a dictatorship under the leadership of President Edgar Lungu.
Speaking at a joint press briefing in Lusaka yesterday, Catholic Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu said State House had denied the church mother bodies access to President Lungu, hence their resolve to issue a public statement and declare the country a dictatorship.
The three mother churches included the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB), Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) and the Evangelical Fellowship in Zambia (EFZ).
“It is in that spirit that we have for several weeks engaged State House officials and sought an appointment to meet President Edgar Chagwa Lungu.
“Our aim was to bring to his attention some issues that are of great concern to the Church. Now that we have not been allowed to succeed along that path, we have decided to issue this statement to let the powers that be and the people of Zambia know our position on what is happening in the nation,” Archbishop Mpundu said.
He described the arrest of the opposition leader as unfair and accused the Head of State of being a dictator.
“Actions by the Government of President Lungu in imprisoning the opposition leader Mr Hakainde Hichilema are viewed with growing amazement and alarm. The view that President Edgar Lungu is creating a new dictatorship is fast gaining ground.
“With the current state of affairs, it is difficult to see how the UPND can easily recognise the legitimacy of Lungu’s re-election in August 2016,” he said.
Archbishop Mpundu also claimed that the treatment towards Mr Hichilema by police was unacceptable.
“Hichilema has been in custody since he was arrested in a late night raid on his home by heavily armed police service personnel who used unprecedented force and brutality in apprehending just one unarmed citizen.
“The State Police brought dogs of the German Shepherd breed that defecated in the vehicle meant to carry Hakainde. Under whose instructions were the police behaving in that way? The Inspector General or his Commander in Chief?” asked Archbishop Mpundu.
“It was unthinkable that a Zambian government would sink so low as to unleash dogs on its people, as the British colonial administration used dogs on us Africans,” he said.
UPND vice president Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba (GBM), UPND national chairperson Mutale Nalumango, Mazabuka Central Member of Parliament Garry Nkombo and other party officials were part of the audience at the Press briefing.
