By Staff Reporter
PF deputy national chairperson Davies Chama says at the rate things are moving he foresees a situation where all those who served in the PF will visit police cells, as the party he said espouses the Mapatizya formula is now holding the instruments of power.
And Chama said he is more convinced than ever that “the criminals” who were attacking the PF were being sponsored by the UPND leadership, claiming that innocent people are being arrested, while leaving out “the real criminals.”
Speaking with Daily Revelation on the arrest of former PF deputy secretary general Mumbi Phiri in connection with the death of UPND cadre Lawrence Banda, following a violent incident in Kaoma in 2019, Chama, who was also arrested in connection with the same, said he is seeing a pattern where those who served in PF will be targeted with arrests.
“Police cells, yes. I can see that because we are dealing with a ruthless, very cunning people who are determined, who are evil, who don’t see the unity of the nation. Sometimes when you win you put the past behind you, and like their slogan is, forward, and you focus on the nation going forward so that there is healing and there is unity,” Chama, the former Defence minister, said. “We are dealing with a bunch of people who are evil beyond any description. They are so unforgiving. You know Mumbi Phiri was there in Kaoma when the incident happened, and they were under attack. As long as you were in the vicinity of where the incident was happening you are a suspect, you will be arrested.”
Chama accused the UPND administration of trying to divert people’s attention from what he said their false promises which they have failed to fulfill, including the high cost of fuel, an unstable Kwacha and the electricity prices which were due for increment.
“When you promise so much, when you lied so much and have failed and you are under pressure, by even their cadres internally that they are complaining that the endurance of their suffering now is even worse than before, now they want to divert attention by arresting innocent people,” he said.
But asked if he was suggesting that past wrong doing must not be prosecuted, Chama said he supported holding people accountable for their past actions, but what was happening now was a situation where suspects were merely picked up and bundled in police cells.
“Are you sure that Mumbi Phiri is a suspect in the shooting of that person who died, unfortunately lost his life? And she was in the vehicle they were being attacked. Now the victims are the ones who are being arrested and the criminals are going Scott free,” Chama said, demanding that the police must work professionally without undue influence from politicians. “Are you saying there was no police during the time that was happening?”
He warned that the UPND were creating a dangerous precedent where if another administration where to come in they will also be pursued, as “they were torturing people and even have the audacity of putting it on video.”
“In life when you become a leader you just say let bygones be bygones. Let the healing happen. Let forgiveness reign,” he said.
Chama claimed that nothing of the sort that was happening now ever happened during the time the MMD took over from UNIP and the PF from MMD, but “now there was a leadership that can’t forgive.”
He said the UPND even during their time in the opposition were a violent party and involved in several violent campaigns, chiefly in Mufumbwe against the MMD and in Mapatizya against the same party.
“Have you forgotten the Mapatizya formula? That is the character now of the people with the instruments of power,” Chama said.
He warned that after they were done and dusted with the PF, they would go after the journalists, the civil society organisations and the Church.
But put to him that the PF administration he served under also went after their own political opponents, including closing prominent media like The Post and Prime TV, Chama claimed that it was not the PF government which closed The Post but the company’s creditors.
But put to him that former president Edgar Lungu had warned that he was going to fall on The Post like a tonne of bricks, Chama said he was not the one who uttered that statement.
There was no condemnation of Lungu from any PF leader when he issued that threatening statement as head of state.
