FORMER president Edgar Lungu says his barber Shebby Chilekwa has been incarcerated for unknown reasons, but alls well that ends well.

Speaking when senior PF members visited him at his residence, Lungu said he was glad he had support from his colleagues during a turbulent time.

“You cannot be a leader or a person even in retirement without people around you. I am glad that I have the support of my colleagues from Parliament, as well as the party in this turbulence time that we are going through. Obviously, statements have been made about this and that but I am not in a position to talk too much today. But to allow matters settle as you know, my ADC was picked the matter is subjudice. My barber Chilekwa has also been incarcerated. Reasons are yet to be known. But suffice to say all is well that ends well,” said Lungu.

Speaking at Lungu’s residence, Chama South PF member of parliament Davison Mung’andu said President Hakainde Hichilema had preached that no one would be arrested without conclusive investigations but the opposite was happening.

“As the party in Muchinga, we have been taken a bit aback by the new dawn government particularly by President Hakainde Hichilema. Zambians you can be reminded that President Hakainde Hichilema has always preached and advised the security wings not to arrest anyone or detaining anyone without first investigating that person. But what we are seeing is actually a 360 degrees U-turn of his promises. The arrests of Mr Chanda without being investigated, the arrest of Mr Chilekwa, we believe he is still in detention without being investigated and we have been reliably informed that he is being tortured,” Mung’andu said.

He charged that the Head of State was establishing torture chambers.

“Actually, President Hakainde Hichilema is establishing torture chambers which we in the PF in Muchinga will not accept. We want to remind him that indeed as our former president has mentioned, we want as a new generation to see our leaders being respected. The way former leaders in Europe are being respected. I will give an example, you heard the issues that were surrounding the former Prime Minister of Britain Tony Blair, where did it go? You heard about the issues that had to do with Donald Trump in the USA for example, where even the Capitol Hill was stormed, where has it gone? So even this, we want to appeal to him that when our time comes, which is coming, let him be rest assured when we take over that presidency, we want to come and respect him, we want him to come and live a dignified life. Yes, we are not protecting wrong doing, if there is wrong doing, let the process of the law be followed,” said Mung’andu.

Meanwhile, former home affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo urged police officers to be professional.

“We just want to appeal, having been a former Minister of Home Affairs, I would like to see professionalism through the Zambia police service to be seen by the members of the public. We want confidence in our law enforcement agencies. It is scaring us to hear that in the course of the investigations, they are having civilians to interrogate people that they are subjecting to investigations. As a police, it needs to be dealt with. It has never happened in this country that we get a Private individual to be part of the investigations. The Aide De Camp who was picked is a senior police officer of the rank and deputy commissioner of police. And so when there are issues to be investigated about, notwithstanding that no one is above the law, there must be procedures to be followed,” said Kampyongo.

Also making a contribution, Kabushi PF member of parliament Bowman Lusambo said Lungu did so much for the country and he should be respected.

“President Edgar Lungu did a lot in this country. He managed to transform Zambia. He has managed to transform many sectors. We all have to give him respect. President Hakainde Hichilema, that seat which you are holding now is a seat which honorable [Given] Lubinda wants to occupy in the few years to come. So we don’t want to repeat what is happening today to him. We would want to open up a new page. Yes, the fight against corruption is a fight for all Zambians not an individual. It is a fight for all of us,” said Lusambo.

“If there is something we did while in government, it is prudent for President Hakainde Hichilema to give the investigative wings time to investigate these matters. If they find us guilty, they will take us to court and if the court finds us guilty, we can be convicted. That is the plain way of doing things, that is the procedure. You can’t arrest someone, put him in cells then start investigating that person, it doesn’t work like that. Start torturing someone, it doesn’t work like that. So, for us as members of Kabushi we are very strong and we are not going to tolerate anymore nonsense from the UPND administration.”

And Lukashya PF member of parliament George Chisanga said Lungu was being vilified and called upon PF members to rally behind him.

“The President is being vilified and he has to find people to stand with him. And I would like to make an earnest appeal to the members of the PF country wide to stand firmly behind this president. What this president did for this country is seen, it is very visible. He led the party that implemented projects for massive infrastructure development. This is not something that people can just ignore. We came here to demonstrate that we are going to stand firmly with the president and we are going to support him even at a time he is going through trials and temptations,” said Chisanga.

“You heard what my colleagues said, it appears in this country there are two separate laws, there is a law for the PF and there is a law for everybody else. All these people that have been mentioned here, have been arrested without compliance with the rule of law.”