Maravi

Lubinda complains to police over $45m stories

Lubinda complains to police over $45m stories
By Bright Mukwasa
Fri 08 July 2011, 14:40 CAT

KABWATA PF member of parliament Given Lubinda yesterday lodged a complaint at Lusaka Central Police station over an email published by the Zambian Watchdog allegedly authored by him.

Lubinda, who was accompanied by his Lubansenshi constituency counterpart Lazarous Chota, initially went to Lusaka Police headquarters around 12:00 hours but was referred to Lusaka Central police by police director of operations Dr Solomon Jere, where his complaint was recorded for more than two hours.

Later in an interview, Lubinda said he expected the police to get to the bottom of the matter without delay.

“As you have seen in the email which is heavily published by the state media, the author of that email is trying to portray a picture that the PF is party of crooks. Because you see US $45 million is too huge an amount, it’s equivalent to about K2.5 trillion which is 10 per cent of our national budget,” Lubinda said.

“If that money was brought here into the financial system of Zambia, that would be equal to economic sabotage and it would have serious economic ramifications. I don’t think this is a matter that the police should waste time on.

If you remember the matter of The Post versus Emmanuel Mwamba, again involving the same blog, the Zambian Watchdog, judge Gregory Phiri in that matter compelled the police to investigate to find out who the authors of those articles were and I think that even in this particular matter the police should be able to find out who the author is so that the person should be brought to book. It’s not fair for anyone to be engaging in such serious criminal libel. So we shall wait to see what the police will do in this matter,” Lubinda, who is also PF chairman for local government, said the letter was malicious. He denied ever authoring it.

The Zambian Watchdog, an online publication this week published an email allegedly authored by Lubinda to PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba arguing over the US $45 million the party allegedly received from Taiwan and Afghanistan for campaigns, among other issues.

Lubinda has denied ever authoring the email and now wants the police to investigate the matter and establish the authenticity and author of the same mail.

And Lusaka Central Police deputy commanding officer Jackson Simfukwe angrily ordered journalists out of police premises that went to cover Lubinda as he lodged the complaint.

Simfukwe also ordered a police officer to escort and ensure that the reporters were out of the Lusaka central police vicinity across to Church Road.

Labels: GIVEN LUBINDA, LAZAROUS CHOTA

posted by MrK @ 6:22 PM