ABUSING CITIZENS
IT is frightening at the rate the government appears to be playing a hand in the mistreatment and denial of justice to citizens.
It is no longer a secret that the government security machinery has thrown the rule of law concept to the winds.
This has left Zambians bewildered, that they can no longer trust their own government to protect them.
What is even more frightening is that top government officials are in the forefront in trying to hijack the country’s laws merely to entrench the political elite in power.
Sadly, they appear to be protected by the system. Examples abound in which top government officials have been implicated in all manner of committing criminal offences, but they have gone scot- free.
The most brazen example of their mischief is the drama involving Petauke Central Independent Member of Parliament, Emmanuel Jay Banda to have him denounce his accusations against senior government officials. Mr Banda has not been left his peace since his abduction in Lusaka over a month ago when he was missing for several days until he found himself dumped in Kafue.
A video emerged in which Thabo Kawana, the Information and Media Permanent Secretary and his Home Affairs and Internal Security counterpart Dickson Matembo attempted to coerce him to recant his statement and withdraw his affidavit from court in exchange for his freedom. A second leaked audio has now emerged in which a voice believed to be that of Health Minister Sylvia Masebo is heard coercing the ailing Jay Banda to renounce his statement to the police in which he had named high- ranking government officials and a UPND operative, Trevor Mwiinde as his abductors.
What is surprising is that these secret meetings are being held with a person that Government officially claims faked his abduction. Even Emeritus Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu is baffled why some senior government officials have secretly been having meetings with Mr Banda with the aim to coerce him to exonerate his abductors and instead implicate other people if the Petauke legislator had faked his abduction.
“Why is it that those who had been mentioned by Emmanuel Jay Banda are freely moving about while the man who is a victim of abduction has been charged, arrested and incarcerated without being tried in a Court of Law? Mr Kawana was also mentioned in a video recording discussing with his Home Affairs counterpart Akafumba about not registering the Citizens First party of Harry Kalaba. To date, no disciplinary action has been taken against the two officers. Mr Banda is among the victims of a dysfunctional administration doing its worst to suppress its citizens instead of protecting them. A Patriotic Front sympathiser Rizwani Patel has been languishing in cells for almost five months without being charged on politically- motivated allegations.
That Government has allowed such illegalities brings into question its claims that it respects the rule of law. In anything, we agree with State Counsel, Sakwiba Sikota, that the government of President Hakainde
Hichilema must do the right thing and stop attempts to trivialise and bury the abduction of Mr Banda. Said Mr Sikota: From day 1, the state has been acting
in a very peculiar way regarding his case. Various press conferences have been held and all of them gave no updates on investigations. All the press conferences by government officials from permanent secretaries, ministers and even the Republican President have concentrated on trying to besmirch the name of the victim, Jay Jay Banda.”
This is clearly a case of the government abusing the rights of a citizen and must stop.