Tue, 17 Jan 2017 07:04:52 +0000
By Mukosela Kasalwe
IT IS criminal and treasonable for UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema to suggest that President Edgar Lungu is in office illegally, the Patriotic Front (PF) has warned.
PF deputy spokesperson Frank Bwalya said Mr Hichilema should know that he was treading on dangerous ground by his continued claim that he was the winner of the August 11, 2016 presidential elections and that he could easily be cited for treason.
He said Mr Hichilema was pushing his luck too far by peddling lies that he had won the last presidential polls and should have been President of Zambia.
Mr Bwalya said the continued insistence by Mr Hichilema that he won the last presidential election was a gimmick to give his members false hope that the election would someday be overturned in his favour and sustain the UPND until 2021.
Mr Bwalya said that it was criminal for Mr Hichilema to continue claiming he had won the last presidential elections but also prejudicial for him to continue commenting on a matter that was before court.
He recalled that he was a victim of the UPND violence and brutality when he was allegedly beaten by Mr Hichilema’s bodyguards when he featured on Sky FM Radio in Monze.
He said that Mr Hichilema and the UPND should allow the due process of the law to take its full course than to continue commenting on court matters with impunity.
In an interview yesterday, Mr Bwalya said that the lies that Mr Hichilema was peddling to his members that the August 11th general elections would be overturned in their favour were an act of criminality.
Mr Bwalya said that Mr Hichilema’s strategy of peddling lies that the re-election of President Lungu would be overturned was not going to sustain the little popularity the UPND had remained with.
He said it was impossible for Mr Hichilema to sustain the UPND by deliberately misleading his members that he had won the last general elections.
He however warned that it was treasonable for the UPND leader to declare himself winner of the last polls when the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) had declared President Lungu victorious. Mr Hichilema was recently quoted as having said that he had won the last general elections and that the UPND was in court because he believed his victory was stolen.
The UPND leader said that it was unfortunate that many of his members were before court on tramped up charges and urged his members to remain united and resolved.
