Cops question UPND C/belt chairperson over Mufumbwe violence

Cops question UPND C/belt chairperson over Mufumbwe violence
By Mwila Chansa in Kitwe
Sun 16 May 2010, 03:30 CAT

POLICE officers from Solwezi on Friday evening interrogated Copperbelt UPND chairperson Elisha Matambo on his role in the Mufumbwe by-election, which was scooped by the UPND.

But Matambo has described his pursuance by the police as persecution of the worst kind. Matambo confirmed in an interview yesterday that four officers from Solwezi in North Western Province interviewed him at Ndola Central Police Station in the presence of his two lawyers, Jack Mwimbu and Derrick Mulenga.

He narrated that the officers found his brother at his business premises in Ndola and asked him to take them where he Matambo was.

"My brother called me that ‘there are some people here looking for you’ and I told him to let them come. They found me at Savoy Hotel around 17:30 hours, where I was having tea," he said.

He said the police officers asked him to accompany them to the police station because they wanted to interview him.

"I insisted that I would only accompany them to the police station with my lawyers. Those officers were very professional. They did not harass me, they just asked me questions and I gave them answers," he said.

Matambo said he was aware that the officers were being pressured from 'forces above' to push around and try to silence the strong voices in the opposition.

"This is persecution of the worst kind. We would have understood if they were also interviewing people in the other camp MMD. We were the ones who were brutalised in Mufumbwe, our campaign centre was attacked several times. They just want to instill fear in us but I can't blame the police because they are just being pushed," he said.

"Why are they pushing us around? Why haven't they interviewed the MMD who were beating up people? It is surprising that the victims of violence are the ones being persecuted."

Matambo said whoever was putting pressure on the police to harass the opposition should know that change was coming whether they liked it or not.

"Some of us know that our Lord lives and we'll face tomorrow because He holds our future and the future of this country. Jesus knows who was brutalising people. All fear is gone and we can face tomorrow and no one has the capacity to say no when Jesus says 'yes'," he said.

Matambo said Zambian politicians should take a leaf from the kind of issue-based politics exhibited by Britons.

And Mulenga described the interview as a "mere statement of clarification".
"They wanted to know his responsibilities in Mufumbwe, when he went there and when he came out. They were satisfied with the answers he gave them," said Mulenga.

UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma observed that police's selectivity and bias was creating tension in the country.

Kakoma complained that police had not arrested the people that wanted to kill him in Mufumbwe despite knowing who they were and that no MMD member suspected of instigating violence had so far been interviewed or arrested for their offences.
Kakoma urged the police to be impartial.