HH committed an offence, claims Sinkamba

Fri, 14 Apr 2017 11:07:46 +0000

By JOSSY CHAIMA

OPPOSITION UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema committed an offense when he blocked the motorcade for President Edgar Lungu and so the matter should be dealt with in line with the law of the land, Green Party president Peter Sinkamba has said.

Mr Sinkamba said blocking the presidential motorcade was more like challenging the office of the republican President which was the  highest office in the country.

He said in an interview in Kitwe yesterday that the presidency was not an individual, but an institution which deserved to be respected.

“Anywhere in the world, the office of the republican president is given respect. Even in the USA, when President Donald Trump is flying from one city to the other, all planes should be down. If he is travelling by road, the way should be cleared for him.

“In other countries, if you obstruct the presidential motorcade, they will not hesitate to fire at you because you are endangering the life of the president. So the UPND leader committed an offense when he blocked the presidential motorcade and the matter should be dealt with in line with the law,” he said.

He said if he was President Lungu, he would have fired the entire Police Command and other security wings in Western Province for failing to carry out their duties effectively.

“There must have been a huge problem with the security of the President, and if I was President I was going to fire all of them because there was a serious lapse in security. At the police headquarters in Lusaka, heads would have rolled,” he said.

Mr Sinkamba said as much as there was a lapse in security it was wrong for the opposition leader to compromise the life of the head of state in that manner and he should avoid such kind of scenarios.

He commended President Lungu for showing great wisdom by ignoring Hichilema’s provocation in Mongu, saying the decision safeguarded the peace of the nation.

Mr Sinkamba said it was good thinking by the head of state to act in the manner that he did because if he had reacted there would have been chaos and many lives would have been lost.

Mr Sinkamba called for dialogue between all political parties to resolve political differences causing tension and jeopardizing the internal security of the country.