NDC national chairperson Fr Richard Luonde has called on Zambians to rise up and reject President Edgar Lungu’s dictatorship.
In an interview after police cordoned off the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court on Thursday where NDC leader Chishimba Kambwili’s bail application was scheduled for hearing, Fr Luonde said President Lungu had clearly distinguished himself as a sworn dictator.
“I’m warning President Lungu and his PF that this evil they have perpetuated will catch up on them. I call upon all citizens to rise up and challenge this devil that has crippled our freedoms. To hell with PF. To hell with their dictatorship,” he said. “President Edgar Lungu has openly and shamelessly unleashed his dictatorship on all citizens opposed to his evil schemes. Look at the way he is treating our party president Dr Chishimba Kambwili. Why is it that it’s only Dr Kambwili’s court cases that invite a heavy police presence at court and in the streets of Lusaka? Where do all these police officers suddenly come from when we are always told that police don’t have enough manpower to police our public rallies whenever we notify police about them?”
He further wondered what President Lungu was scared of for him to have completely abandoned the tenets of democracy.
Fr Luonde said it was very clear that Kambwili’s prosecution and conviction were schemed and executed by the PF.
“What is President Lungu so scared of that he should take us back to a one party state? Today, every citizen has been stopped from attending Dr Kambwili’s appeal hearing. Lungu’s police and their dogs have been unleashed like locusts, just to scare people from participating freely in their governance,” he said. “If, indeed, Dr Kambwili’s prosecution and conviction were not induced by Lungu and his PF, why have they besieged the Magistrates’ Courts? It is very clear that this case was sanctioned by PF and they are managing it. In short it is politically motivated.”
He said it was equally wrong for government to humiliate Kambwili’s wife and daughter in the name of politics.
“How does a government humiliate Dr Kambwili’s family like that? They can humiliate Dr Kambwili, but certainly not his wife and children. Would any of those in power today want their family members to be humiliated like that by the government of the day after they have left office? We should not take politics to families, please!” Fr Luonde pleaded. “We in the National Democratic Congress demand sanity in our nation. We demand our democratic rights to be restored. Further, we demand the independence of the judiciary.”
Fr Luonde bemoaned PF’s continued abuse of the judiciary to fix their opponents.
He warned that the PF were planting a bad seed that they would reap from.
“The judiciary has been turned against innocent citizens. It is now busy cleansing criminals in PF who get acquitted even before undergoing full trial. If Lungu continues with this dictatorship, people will rise and this country will blow up in flames,” said Fr Luonde. “Fellow Zambians, the situation in our country continues to deteriorate every day. And if we do not challenge it, we will all remain without any civil rights.”