Hamoonga’s urge to Binwell

By Daily Revelation Editor

Police spokesperson Rae Hamoonga has urged independent Nkana member of parliament Binwell Mpundu to stop making noise in the media but report UPND members who committed offences to police.

Hamoonga’s remarks follow Mpundu’s statement Last week when he charged that there was selective application of the law by the UPND government, as the police were failing to arrest members of the ruling party. 

Among the people Mpundu mentioned as having not been arrested despite uttering what he believed as demeaning remarks t was Education minister Douglas Syakalima, who said that the people of Luapula had the poverty of mind.

But Hamoonga said the remarks by Syakalima should be contextualised by asking him what he exactly meant when he uttered the remarks.

He actually challenged the reporter to ask Syakalima what he meant when he made that statement, rather making insinuations 

“Not at all, we do not treat people according to their political affiliation, tribe or creed. We look at the ingredient of an offence. When somebody commits an offence, we arrest them according to the offence that they have committed. No, l think you should take things in context,” said Hamoonga.“ Ask Mr Syakalima what he said rather than us trying to twist things, or twist words it is not right. So, you can ask Mr Syakalima what he said, not what honorable Binwell Mpundu is telling you, no!  So it is better you ask the person who said it, what did he mean. Then hear from him as opposed to peddling insinuations that are being said by another person.”

So, Bamoonga is urging Mpundu to report the crimes he believes have been committed by the UPND members, while at the same time urging someone to contextualise what Syakalima said.

Is it really in Hamoonga’s position to ask someone to contextualise an alleged crime before it is even reported to police? Then where does the same leave those who may want to report the alleged offence if the police spokesperson is already urging people to contextualise the matter?

While it is given for Hamoonga to contextualise something within his own mind, we feel it is not right for him to seem to be already infusing doubt over the efficacy of a matter before it is even reported to the police.

We agree with what Mpundu is actually saying that the selective application of the law is heavily tilted in favour of the ruling party against the opposition.

The case in point is actually over the inertia which was noticed recently which had to take a lot of public outcry for the police to actually move in on Maria Zaloumis following the death of Simfukwe.

We also wonder if police would have spared anyone outside the ruling party if the remarks uttered by Syakalima were uttered by especially a member of the opposition against the people of another province. We are pretty sure the arrest was going to be swift and by this time a judgement will already have been delivered by the courts of law.

What we expect from Hamoonga and the men in uniform is to reflect on the concerns of bias being raised against the police in the manner they are going about administering justice in the country.

And since Hamoonga has urged Mpundu to report the offences he feels have been committed by UPND members, we urge him to proceed on that path so that we see how the police would proceed on the same.