By OLIVER SAMBOKO
THE UPND has warned that there will be anarchy in the country should the police arrest its president Mr Hakainde Hichilema today when he appears for questioning.
But Government through Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo has warned the opposition party against causing unnecessary chaos in the country as police are equal to the task and were ready to enforce the law by any means necessary to maintain law and order.
According to the summons, Police in Lusaka want Mr Hichilema to help them with investigations on a matter that they have not disclosed to the public. However, there has been speculation within the party that he is wanted over the ownership a farm in Kalomo.
UPND national chairperson Mutale Nalumango said in statement yesterday that Mr. Hichilema was not leading a small party and cannot be pushed around anyhow by the police.
“We wish to warn the police that a further escalation of the scheme to arrest HH will be too costly for the whole country,” warned Ms Nalumango.
She said the party’s national management committee, was aware that the summoning of Mr Hichilema was politically motivated but warned that, the party was not going to sit back and watch the Patriotic Front destroy the democracy and shrink the political space in the country.
Ms Nalumango also claimed the UPND was aware that the police are being used to create flimsy grounds for imposing trumped up charges against Mr Hichilema as a way of intimidating him.
Meanwhile, Government through the Ministry of Home Affairs has expressed displeasure with the manner in which the UPND is responding to the summoning of Mr Hichilema by Police in Lusaka.
At a press briefing in Lusaka, Mr Kampyongo said that there was nothing extraordinary about police summoning Mr. Hichilema.
He said that it is not the first time in Zambia that a leader of the opposition is being summoned by police to help with investigations in their quest to maintain law and order.
Mr Kampyongo said that the behaviour of some UPND officials of plotting to mobilise thugs to cause chaos when their leader appears before police today will not be entertained by Government.
