Tue, 11 Jul 2017 09:47:17 +0000
By MUKOSELA KASALWE
FUGITIVE UPND cadre, Larry Mweetwa says he is not bothered about being extradited to Zambia by the International Police or security forces as he is innocent and ready to face the law.
The UPND cadre says he is living and working normally in the United Kingdom and he is not aware of anyone looking for him.
Mr. Mweetwa laughed off the possibility of being deported to Zambia by Interpol or security forces and said that he was enjoying and working normally in the United Kingdom and that no one had asked or questioned him over any criminal matter.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Mr Mweetwa said he was innocent of sponsoring acts of arson in Zambia and that he could not remember having ever celebrated the gutting of markets or power installations on his Facebook page but that it was once hacked.
Mr. Mweetwa said the British government had better things to do than to pursue him over a trivial matter of arson and that he had written an open letter to President Edgar Lungu over the matter. He said he would be the happiest person to come to Zambia and exculpate himself and prove his innocence.
Mr. Mweetwa said the burden to prove his case depended on the Zambian government and that he did not care what was obtaining on the ground or what the police had so far established in their investigations on the Lusaka City Market inferno.
“My friend, I am not bothered, inform everybody including (Daily Nation) proprietor Richard Sakala that I am not moved. “Even as you are speaking to me, I am having my lunch and working normally. No one has queried or asked me over any criminal matter…(laughs),” he said.
He said he desired to see a better Zambia but that currently there was a lot of wrongs going on in the country and accused the powers that be of allegedly protecting well-known criminal elements.
Mr. Mweetwa said that it was disheartening that suspected
Patriotic Front cadres who during last year’s general election attacked the UPND branded bus and that there was a video of the incident.
He claimed that a lot of wrong things had happened in the country such as the shooting of a UPND cadre Mapenzi and the ambushing of UPND mourners during the burial of their colleague at Memorial Park.
Mr. Mweetwa said it would be a waste of time for the courts to take up his matter instead of offering justice to citizens who desperately needed it.
Minister of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo recently said he would request the UK Government to extradite Mr. Mweetwa to Zambia for his utterances on acts of arson.
Mr. Kampyongo said suspects on offences of terrorism were taken seriously in the United Kingdom where many citizens have lived in fear of terror attacks.
Government has taken great exception to Mr Mweetwa’s social media posts bothering on inciting acts of sabotage.
“Lusaka on fire now as I speak due to HH arrest. Job well done bane (friends) let’s intensify such actions and defend democracy,” Mr Mweetwa posted on his Facebook wall soon after the Lusaka Market was gutted. He claims that was not his post.
