By Isaac Zulu
Raphael Nakachinda has said that President Hakainde Hichilema should be held accountable for failing to provide security at the residence of former president Edgar Lungu and director of public prosecutions Lillian Siyuni, saying this is an indictment on the current Head of State.
And Nakachinda has said that the UPND leadership is scared of the Patriot Front in the run up to the Kabushi and Kwacha parliamentary by-elections, stating that this is the more reason why the current regime has embarked on a crusade aimed at blocking the two former members of parliament, at all costs.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Nakachinda, who is Patriot Front member of central committee chairman for information and publicity, stressed that President Hakainde Hichilema is the one mandated to ensure that law enforcement agencies enforce a Statutory Instrument aimed at the general citizenry have gauranteed security, and the office of the former president is not an exception.
“Well, this incidence is unprecedented in the history of this country and the world over, where you can have the residence of the former Head of State’s broken into,” explained Nakachinda. “We have seen that the current government has been failing to provide detailed security to the DPP and former president Edgar Lungu. The DPP has been prosecuting criminal cases for 30 years, presiding over very sensitive matters. But her life is in fear because the current government has deliberately failed to provide security to this Constitutional office bearer. President Hakainde Hichilema has the mandate to instruct and ensure that law enforcement officers provide security to the Head of State. Therefore, to failure by the PF government to provide security to the said two people, in their respective offices, only goes to show that President Hakainde Hichilema has deliberately failed to provide security to the former Head of State and the DPP. So this is an indictment on President Hakainde Hichilema. Very soon, we will be seeing the arrest and abduction of journalists and politicians. Very soon we are going to have a mafia kind of government under the UPND administration.”
Nakachinda further stated that the UPND leadership is scared of the Patriot Front fielding Joe Malanji and Bowman Lusambo in the forthcoming parliamentary by-elections.
Nakachinda explained that the two former parliamentarians have been engaging in some employment programmes in their respective constituencies, which he said have benefited a lot of community members in the said two constituencies.
Asked on the prospects of the PF retaining the Kabushi and Kwacha parliamentary by-elections, Nakachinda said that Lusambo and Malanji are very popular on the ground, stating that the PF is “on the fertilile ground” considering the number of votes they obtained in last year’s general elections, but was quick to state that the former ruling party would “not abrogate the party’s procedures when it comes to then adoption process.”
“Of course, that goes without saying. How can the institutional organisations, such as the Electoral Commission of Zambia, allow Honourable Joe Malanji to file and apply for adoption in the 2 c016 general elections, and then this time around the Constructional Court says he has no grade 12 certificate? Some people and other stakeholders have said that this is reckless judgement. The court should have also taken judicial notice that Honourable Joe Malanji had submitted the said grade 12 certificate in 2016 and in 2021,” explained Nakachida. “We have our own procedures in that regard, but from what we are getting on the ground, these seats will be retained by the Patriot Front.”
