By GRACE CHAILE LESOETSA
A FIRE Fighter has testified that he witnessed a man clad in a UPND T-shirt hack with an axe, Matero Member of Parliament Miles Sampa, on August 12 at George Central Primary School Polling Station in Lusaka.
This is a matter where UPND losing candidate Tom Michelo has petitioned the election of Mr Sampa as MP of Matero constituency, asking the Lusaka High Court to nullify the seat on account that the polls where marred with malpractices which included violence and corruption.
Testifying before Judge Derrick Mulenga, Mr Moses Zimba told the court that he is a resident of George Compound who works as a fire fighter at Fire Brigade under the Lusaka City Council.
Mr Zimba stated that he was accredited as an election monitor for a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) called Touching Lives. This was after the NGO went round the compound asking for volunteer monitors.
He stated that on the election day of August 12, 2021 at around 15: 00 hours, Mr Sampa arrived in his white Range Rover accompanied by three other men at George Central Primary School polling station.
He stated that state security which included Police Officers and soldiers opened the gate for Mr Sampa who drove inside the school.
Mr Zimba said a good number of people clad in red T-shirts and black coats followed the MP.
He added that Mr Sampa stepped out of the vehicle and went straight to the classroom where there was voting and begun interacting with Patriotic Front (PF) polling agents.
It was then that a police officer approached him with a phone stating that the call was from the Matero Police Station officer in-charge.
The witness stated that since the phone was on loud speaker he was able to hear the officer –in-charge instructing Mr Sampa to leave the polling station as it was not safe.
He stated that as the MP was leaving, the group of men in the red T-Shirts started throwing stones at him and shouting, “leave the place.”
Mr Zimba stated that as Mr Sampa and the other men tried to run for their lives towards the vehicle, a tall guy wearing a UPND T- Shirt removed an axe from his bomber jacket.
He said the man first hacked the two guys and then threw the axe at Mr Sampa which landed on his back while he was running.
However, in cross examination, Mr Zimba could not produce any identification to show that he was a monitor and also that he worked for LCC.
When asked by counsel Martha Mushipe on how many parties participated in the general elections, Mr Zimba was not sure and gave an estimation number of between 16 and 19 parties.
He was also unable to state how many agents each party had or the number of monitors per polling station.
Ms Mushipe quizzed harder by asking him the name of the person heading the said NGO, which Mr Zimba did not know.
And a second respondent witness, social media blogger Chaze Mwale testified that he and his colleague Naduna Sibutwane owned Boba TV Facebook page which posted that Mr Michelo had withdrawn from the Parliamentary race.
Mr Mwale admitted to having posted the same post but deleted it after Mr Michelo commented that the story was not true.
He refuted that the Facebook page belonged to Mr Sampa stating that he verbally asked the former Mayor if he could use the name “Boba” for his public page.
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