Maravi

Kapata demands arrest of William Banda

Kapata demands arrest of William Banda
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sat 10 Apr. 2010, 04:01 CAT

MANDEVU PF parliamentarian Jean Kapata yesterday demanded the arrest of MMD Lusaka Province acting chairperson William Banda and his land-grabbing cadres for harassing Ng'ombe displaced people in an attempt to confiscate land from them.

Commenting on the revelations by leader of the former Ng'ombe residents Stephen Ludaka that Banda and his cadres violently harassed the displaced residents in Lusaka over the weekend in an attempt to grab land from them and lands minister Gladys Lundwe's defence for William Banda and MMD cadres, Kapata said William Banda must not be allowed to be going round with activities which are in conflict with the law.

“He should just concentrate on his party but not to destabilise people where they are. He must be arrested, the President must have William Banda arrested because whatever he is doing is not right,” Kapata said.

She said William Banda was not the right person to be going round to address land allocation issues because he was not an official from the Ministry of Lands or the council or the police.

“William Banda is not a police officer; we want police officers to act. We have reported to the police on several occasions, even in Mandevu where the MMD cadres are allocating land but the police have not done anything. I challenge Lameck Mangani as Minister of Home Affairs, let him do something about the people of Ng'ombe,” Kapata said. “The displaced people of Ng'ombe are destabilised by MMD cadres and Mr William Banda knows and let him tell the truth. Those are cheap politics which he is playing. I challenge him to bring out the MMD cadres that are illegally allocating land.”

Kapata attributed the problem of land allocation in Lusaka to MMD cadres.

“The displaced people of Ng'ombe have suffered for a long time. By now they could have settled but because MMD cadres are harassing them and they MMD cadres think they can go anywhere and start allocating land. I am not going to accept that,” said Kapata.

But lands minister Lundwe has defended William Banda's lawlessness.

“Mr William Banda and other people have taken it upon themselves to prove to the nation that these people who are doing that are not MMD cadres. And this is why you have seen that they have created a task force going round Lusaka to arrest people to help the police actually who must have been doing it,” said Lundwe. “The cadres themselves, they are saying they are the people illegally allocating land. They have started arresting and reporting or taking those people to police. So we want to clear it from the nation that it would not be MMD cadres as such, so when they are arrested, we will prove to the nation where they are coming from.”

However, MMD lands chairperson Judith Kapijimpanga has condemned William Banda and party cadres for grabbing land from Ng'ombe displaced people.

Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, William Banda and MMD cadres went to harass Ng'ombe displaced people on Kabwe Road, confiscated their cement, shovels and other tools in a bid to compel them to surrender the land to the MMD.

Labels: CADRES, JEAN KAPATA, LAND RIGHTS, WILLIAM BANDA

posted by MrK @ 2:33 PM