Fri, 23 Jun 2017 12:53:27 +0000
By OSCAR MALIPENGA
INSISTENCE by the UPND crusade that Hakainde Hichilema must be released unconditionally is against the principle of the rule of law, Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) national secretary Raphael Nakacinda has charged.
And Mr. Nakacinda said the arrest of Mr Hichilema has put to test both the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and the UPND whether they believe in the rule of law or not. He said the UPND was experiencing what they were going through because of being at conflict with the law.
Mr. Nakacinda said the onus was on political players to make sure that in their conduct and in whatever they did in the course of being politicians, they avoided being inconvenienced by the law. Speaking when he featured on a Joy FM radio programme dubbed “The platform” yesterday,
Mr. Nakacinda urged politicians to stop doing things with impunity to end up breaking the law because then they would be subject to the totality of the bureaucracy of the judicial process. “It is amazing that people insult the judiciary but still go back to the same judiciary to make applications for bail, to be heard but stand on a hilltop to cast aspersions on the judiciary, it is unfortunate.
He said the two former Presidents (late Fredrick Chiluba and Rupiah Banda) were made to go to court all the way until they were acquitted.
“I think it goes to the UPND to allow the entire process to be exhausted and if our brother is innocent, he will be declared innocent. It is a principle that as Zambians, we must embrace and accept. He said The Post Newspaper had not been closed as a result of being anti-government but it was liquidated because of going beyond the equity in terms of borrowing and owing the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA).
Mr Nakacinda charged that people are confusing the enforcement of the law to mean dictatorship.
