By ADRIAN MWANZA
AS fourth Republican President Rupiah Banda was being put to rest and speeches of reconciliation were being read, my farm was searched and dug by investigative wings who had gadgets with a view of detecting things like safes which contained money, former Patriotic Front Chairperson Samuel Mukupa has mourned.
Mr Mukupa said he was shocked that there was too much hypocrisy because investigative wings were unleashed on him while the public were being given an impression that the country was on the path of reconciliation.
He said that the team did not find anything but that they raided the farm with sophisticated gadgets that no one had seen and did not know how they functioned.
Mr Mukupa said since the gadgets were sophisticated the officers could have been looking for something else which was unknown to everyone.
“The gadgets were electronic, the type that you could use to detect some metal objects. I was not around so I got this information from my workers,” he said.
He said he was still in the dark about the two searches at his farm because the joint investigative wings only produced search warrants and did not inform the workers on what they wanted.
Mr Mukupa said that it was unfortunate that the team of investigative wings that dug up his farm came with metal detectors meant to detect metal objects.
Mr Mukupa said that the search warrant was vague and that it did not explain what exactly they were looking for, which was very unfortunate.
He said they told his wife on phone that they had gone to the farm this time to dig out whatever they think was hidden underground.
Mr Mukupa said he did not want to speculate on what it is they wanted but that he was shocked that they pounced on him at a period when the country was mourning the death of fourth republican president, Mr Rupiah Bwezani Banda. Meanwhile, PF Chairperson for Publicity Raphael Nakacinda said the levels of hypocrisy being exhibited was frightening because when the country was mourning and burying the former the
fourth president, the state was busy searching opposition leaders, including Mr Mukupa.
Mr Nakacinda said that the current regime blindfolded people by portraying that they were conducting the funeral arrangements in harmony while in the background they were abusing and intimidating the PF.
Mr Nakacinda said that a number of PF leaders had been humiliated because people’s farms and homes had been turned upside down.
He said the ruling party was hoping to have another Austin Liato scenario of finding money hidden on people’s property.
“There is a serious lack of sincerity among the people in power. You can see that while the funeral was going on people went and searched property with a bid to find money they thought was stashed there,” Mr Nakacinda said.
He said even if there was money, the court in the Liato case ruled that there was nothing wrong with that.
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