COBUSU leaders to sue govt for false detention

COBUSU leaders to sue govt for false detention
Written by Zumani Katasefa in Kitwe
Monday, September 07, 2009 2:46:12 PM

COPPERBELT University Student Union (COBUSU) vice-president Lucky Miyanda and secretary general Kenneth Sampa have indicated that they will sue the government for false detention and defamation of character.

Miyanda and Sampa who were detained after CBU students allegedly burnt down a vehicle belonging to a Kitwe businessman during a protest at the campus described their detention as politically motivated and meant to silence students.

"The whole thing is coming from above, our detention was politically motivated, and we were asked to give them the names of monks (male students), but I told them that I am not interested in other people's affairs. The interrogation officers were coming from Ndola," said Miyanda.

Miyanda said during the interrogations, police told him that he was detained because he was COBUSU vice-president..

"So because I am a vice-president for COBUSU, that is the reason why they detained me. In the near future, they should also consider arresting RB (President Rupiah Banda) or Sata (PF leader) when their cadres fight," he said.

He said the police had insufficient evidence over the matter and ended up labelling him a ‘stubborn leader’.

"They (police) started calling me stubborn, I am a good leader, that is why students like me at CBU," he said.

Miyanda wondered why the government just decided to single out the two COBUSU leaders who were not even on the scene when the incident happened.

And Sampa said the government was trying to look for loopholes so that they could silence the students.

He said the government would not stop their demands for it to look into the plight of Cornelius Mweetwa, the CBU student who was shot at by police.

Sampa reiterated the students' demands for President Banda to remove Dora Siliya as minister of education.

He said police were still following individual students at their respective homes.

"They are just looking for loopholes to silence us, we are not their enemies, we are enemies of injustice, we are intellectuals, we analyse issues, it is very unfortunate that the government is using poaching methods to try and silent us," he said.

Sampa said it was sad that CBU management had decided to close the learning institution indefinitely.

He said management at the campus would have solved the problems prevailing at the university without closing the institution.