As News Diggers! we have always restrained ourselves from commenting on the liquidation of The Post newspaper because some members of staff at our media institution hail from Bwinjimfumu. As aggrieved victims of The Post closure, we fear that the language we might find appropriate to use against the government agents who were behind the operation, might compromise our current professional standing.

But the fact is that the closure of The Post left some of our journalists jobless. They were stranded, thrown on the street literally, without any benefits from the company. They were treated like lepers by the government as well as some of their colleagues in the media fraternity. To some extend, they were declared redundant and unemployable. It was a reality of survival of the fittest. As of today, about 10 ex-Post employees have died of various causes attributed to suffering, depression and unstable health.

A few of those surviving former Post employees teamed up with interested journalists from other media houses to stand on their own feet and carry on the mantle under a youthful umbrella called News Diggers! which we hope Zambians will love enough to support. It is because of this background that we try to be cautious with what we say about the defunct newspaper, because we believe that there are rightful people who are restlessly fighting for justice in the Post closure case, whose efforts we must not jeopardise with our emotions.

That said, we find the conduct of some lawyers, judges and now the harassment of Chief Justice Irene Mambilima over The Post case, impossible to ignore. We would like to draw the attention of our readers to the letter written by Mosha and Company, giving the Chief Justice of Zambia a 24-hour ultimatum in which to explain why she must not be cited for professional misconduct. They want her to explain why she advised High Court judge Sunday Nkonde to recuse himself from handling The Post liquidation case.

Without wasting time to delve into the arguments around the Post liquidation which competent people are already doing, we can say, and it is our opinion that this is a foolish threat inspired by a foolish motive, nothing less.

Where does a lawyer get the authority and courage to threaten a sitting Chief Justice with a 24-hour ultimatum? Who is truly behind this move and speaking through this law firm? Why are they targeting the Chief Justice at this ungodly hour? What is it that they have realised about Mambilima’s attitude which they don’t like? Why do they want her out?

In a normal world, we would have laughed about this letter and ignored it, like the Chief Justice may choose to do today. But we have followed this pattern and we can tell her where it leads. It started with former DPP Mutembo Nchito, he also thought it was a joke, until he found himself trying to fit his super size body in a tiny police cell in Chongwe. Mutembo pleaded that “I don’t mind leaving the DPP’s office, but please let’s follow procedure”. He begged to be investigated first before being taken to court because what he was accused of were criminal charges. In fact, we recall his actual words were, “if we allow this harassment to happen to a Constitutional office holder, next, any disgruntled member of the public will raise baseless charges against a judge and they will be removed in this same manner without subjecting the accusations to an investigation”. All his arguments were discarded and he was thrown out. To date, Mutembo has not seen the judgment from the tribunal that found him guilty.

The same people who hounded Mutembo out of office, also frustrated Rosewin Wandi out of the Anti-Corruption Commission and went further to chuck out her successor Ireen Lamba with baseless accusations. Recently, we have seen that they have moved on the Financial Intelligence Center boss because she has unsettled them. And now they are going for the Chief Justice. Do these people have limits?

If a lawyer, an ordinary member of the Bar can issue such a daring threat to the supervisor of all serving judges in the judiciary, and get away with it, then we are a dead nation. It means it is not the Judiciary which is under siege or the Financial Intelligence Centre, but the country. Zambia is under siege from criminal elements.

We hope that the Law Association of Zambia and the entire LAZ Council are seeing how some of their disgruntled members are disfiguring the country by spearheading the obliteration of the rule of law. We believe that before being admitted to the Bar, lawyers swear to protect the integrity of the judiciary, but most importantly, to uphold the rule of law in the country. But it is shameful that all the assaults targeted at heads of strategic government institutions have been initiated by lawyers themselves, under the leadership of a President who is also a lawyer.

In fact, the Head of State might be sitting ndwii without knowing what criminal elements are doing using his name and influence, but while he dozes, let him know that he will be next. Oh yes! When they are done with chief justice Mambilima, they will go for President Edgar Lungu himself as soon as they differ on a government deal. They will seek to forcefully remove the President from power, using all means because the government itself has given them sufficient financial muscle through illegal contracts to corrupt everyone including the military.

Our advice to you madam Mambilima is that you should consider yourself as an outgoing Chief Justice awaiting the exit date to be communicated. That is how these people who appointed you operate. If you stand in their way, you go! It doesn’t matter if you were right or wrong because the law is what they say it is, not what is on the Constitution. In this case, you have stood in their way of denying justice to the defunct Post newspaper. You have been found guilty of trying to give the liquidated company an opportunity of being heard by any other judge who had no agenda against the newspaper.

If you survive this madam Mambilima, do not, for one second, think that the law has protected you. They may slow down with their intention because people have spoken too much or their paymaster has been too busy to give instructions on the next move, but they are coming.

Therefore, during your remaining days in office, you have a choice of bending to their demands and losing public respect and sympathy, or going out stronger than you went in, and making history. When you were being promoted from the Electoral Commission, a patriotic Zambian musician called Dreams composed a non-political song titled “Irene Mambilima” in which he praises you for being impartial. You may not have heard this song, but we guarantee you that if you disgrace yourself in that position, there will be not one, but many popular songs which will hurt you and the career you have built over many years. Take heed.

We will not be talking about The Post in a while, for the same reasons given above, but while we are at it, we would like to address Mr Lewis Mosho in our comment tomorrow. We would like to speak to his soul, if he has one.