By NATION REPORTER
RAPHAEL Nakacinda has charged that he was yesterday ambushed like a common criminal by the Zambia Police at the Lusaka Magistrate Court and was later issued with a seizure notice for a motor vehicle he had been driving for the last five years in a bid to slap him with the unbailable offence of motor vehicle theft.
The Zambia Police picked up Mr Nakacinda and was reportedly shepherded to Police Force Headquarters, where he was also ambushed with a seizure notice for his car.
Mr Nakacinda, the Patriotic Front (PF) secretary general said police ambushed him and picked him up like a common criminal all in a bid to harass and embarrass him, they had ever done from the time the UPND formed government.He said police told him that the vehicle he was driving was suspected to be a stolen one.
“So, I asked them ‘stolen from where? They said it was just suspected. I also asked them if someone had complained to them that their car had been stolen and they denied. They said it is suspected that the vehicle was stolen from government.
A vehicle is not like a wheelbarrow. The police have all the mechanisms to verify the origins of a vehicle. We do not manufacture vehicles in Zambia. Every vehicle is imported and all the details are recorded by ZRA and RTSA has files,” Mr Nakacinda said.
Mr Nakacinda said police officers were intelligent people but it was the usual UPND tactic of wanting to inconvenience PF members in an effort to demobilize them.
He said UPND had gone further to even inconvenience individuals linked to the PF and their personal enterprises.
“This is victimization.
That is not a stolen vehicle. It was imported and all the paper work was done. Yes, it might have been used briefly in the 2021 campaigns and other by-elections but it has all the valid and legal documents. How can they suspect me of having stolen a car I have been driving for the last five years,” Mr Nakacinda said.
He stated that it was the first time that police had tried to create an issue around his vehicle, stating that it was all meant to charge him with an offence that was non-bailable.
“When we won the Lusangazi and Mufumbwe by-elections, they attempted to grab it. When they discovered that it was properly registered, they let me go,” Mr Nakacinda said.
He said recently, UPND had been trying to manufacture stories around the MMD vehicles but they found nothing and had been too embarrassed to announce that they had found nothing against him.
“There is nothing they can find to incriminate some of us on whenever we offer checks and balances against them. This is just nonsense they are doing and have told me to bring all the documents,” Mr Nakacinda said.
