By Patson Chilemba
Irate UPND cadres last Thursday forced their way into State House to attend the press conference that was addressed by President Hakainde Hichilema.
The cadres who had started gathering up hours before the press conference was due to start, demanded that they be given access into the State House premises together with the journalists.
Tensions started building up around 30 minutes before the event was due to start as journalists were trying to get clearance amid arguments that the clearance and screening could not start as the security officers had not yet gotten the go ahead to screen people, because the tent where the press conference would be held was still being set up – 24 hours after the event had been announced.
As the journalists were queuing up to be cleared whenever the go ahead would be given, the cadres also started gathering in numbers alongside the journalists to also be cleared to enter the State House premises.
On being told by the officers that only those whose names had been submitted will be allowed entrance, the cadres got more agitated accusing the officers of being PF cadres. The appearance of State House photographer Chellah Tukuta on the scene to help explain matters and help the officers who were having a tough time could not help matters.
When one woman called out Tukuta’s name to “pump some sense” into the officers to allow people in as the event would be starting soon, another woman responded, “e Chellah Tukuta uyu uwamu PF (Is this the Chellah Tukuta from PF)?”. But Tukuta insisted that people could not be allowed in as the place was still being prepared, and would only take in a limited number.
But the cadres argued that if they could not be stopped from campaigning to get the party into government, they also would not be stopped from accessing State House grounds. Immediately, they started forcing their way in, first beyond the screening section and then beyond the security gate into the main State House grounds as the security officials watched on helplessly.
The cadres managed to enter State House grounds in their droves without observing Covid-19 protocols on their entry, and without being screened as is the usual practice for one to enter Plot 1.
On noticing that the Daily Revelation journalist was taking the video, some UPND cadres forcibly grabbed the gadget and deleted the footage, but could however not delete it permanently from the garbage section, and therefore it was easy to retrieve it later on. That’s how this footage survived the irate cadres.
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