Jay Jay’s arrest

By Daily Revelation Editor

Police yesterday arrested and charged Petauke-Central member of parliament Emmanuel Jay Jay Banda with aggravated robbery and attempted murder over the offences he committed against journalist Peter Sukwa in 2015.

That case was adjudicated upon in the courts of law with Jay Jay being fined K12,000. However, Peter did not appeal the matter within the stipulated timeframe, and only recently did he start the push to have the matter revisited in the courts of law.

We wish to put it on record that we sympathise with Peter over the barbaric and inhuman abuse he suffered at the hands of Jay Jay. Jay Jay’s actions are indefensible and he should be ashamed of himself that a human being could actually sink to such depravity of urinating in another human being’s mouth. We surely would have wished for our colleague Peter to have received justice devoid of the politics. Thanks to Hakainde Hichilema that door is now closed forever because the President has decided to turn the whole matter into political theatre for his selfish ends.

Clearly, Hakainde’s hypocrisy in this matter is plain for all to see. For close to three years, Jay Jay has been a member of parliament. In fact, during the early period of his and Hakainde’s election into office, the Independent member of parliament would even turn up at the airports and other public venues to welcome the President. During that period, Hakainde saw no crime in Jay Jay, not until he started appearing with Edgar Lungu, with his recent abduction further muddying the waters in terms of his relationship with the President.

Jay Jay’s temerity in asserting that he was abducted by some State House officials certainly did not sit well with Hakainde. We feel one of the main reasons he called his recent press briefing was to specifically address Jay Jay’s issue, with that briefing infamous for the clear directive he gave the police to arrest Jay Jay, something they effected with glee yesterday. They swiftly acted on the directive from their Commander-In-Chief. Such a chilling sad fact that people in this country are now being arrested on  clear public directives from the President. Police, unashamedly, and without regard that the public would easily connect the arrest to Hakainde, nevertheless went ahead to effect the arrest. Such a hammer blow in this country’s nascent democracy. This is no different from Hakainde arresting Banda himself, and simply using police hands to effect his wish.

Ever since the abduction saga, Jay Jay has not been given the opportunity to go home and see his family. He has not even been allowed to give a proper account of what happened. He has been treated in such barbaric inhuman manner, where immediately he was discharged from the hospital on several occasions, police immediately arraigned him for interrogations. Surely, where is the humanity in all this? If you really want to interrogate someone and you are interested in undertaking quality interrogations, why not give someone time to fully recover so that you can properly interrogate them when they are fully fit? Why the rush in doing the interrogations? Is there something you are trying to cover up? Because even in the event Jay Jay is lying, the sequence of events leading to his arrest makes it all seem like Hakainde is in a grudge match against him, and seeking to exact maximum punishment on him.