By KALOBWE BWALYA
FORMER Patriotic Front (PF) Secretary General Davis Mwila has said the party will not disclose the source of funding as that is abuse of the law.
Mr Mwila, who was arrested and charged for being in possession of properties suspected to be proceeds of crime by the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), stated that it was contradicting itself and it would not go anywhere unless if they were also investigating UPND, Socialist Party among other political parties.
He said PF was still strong and they would not be easily intimidated by institutions like DEC and other investigative wings.
“We are not going to disclose the source of funding if they want they can go to heaven or anywhere, are they investigating UPND, Socialist Party? This is abuse of the law,” Mr Mwila said.
Mr Mwila was accompanied by former Mines minister Richard Musukwa, Feira Member of Parliament Emmanuel Tembo, Raphael Nakacinda and other senior PF officials.
Meanwhile, his lawyer, Mr Kambwa Aongola said Mr Mwila was released on police bond and would appear in court soon.
Mr Aongola confirmed Mr Mwila’s arrest to journalists after he appeared before the DEC in Lusaka yesterday.
He disclosed that his client was summoned so as to answer the source of funding for money the PF used for the campaigns during the 2021 general elections.
He said DEC had proceeded to arrest Mr Mwila and charged him with being in possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime contrary to section 71 of the proceeds of forfeiture and crime act.
Mr Aongola explained that in 2017 government introduced a political party bill among other intended to make provision for political parties to disclose their funding on annual basis, but the bill failed to pass in parliament.
“As you may recall that in the past we had an interaction with the Commission where they had expressively sought to understand or compel disclosure of the PF campaign funds in the August 12, 2021 general election.
So arising from that interaction the party went to court because it was of the view that what the DEC had set out to do was devoid of legal backing that was in the sense that this jurisdiction did not have any piece of legislation that compelled political parties to disclose their campaign source of funds,” said Mr Aongola.
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