INSPECTOR General of Police Graphael Musamba says he has not broken any law to warrant his imprisonment after President Hakainde Hichilema leaves office as alleged by Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) leader Edith Nawakwi.
And Musamba says some sections of people who complain about police restrictions are just interested in the country going up in flames.
Last week, Nawakwi said Musamba would be imprisoned once President Hichilema left office.
“And when Hakainde is gone, who is under immunity, Graphael Musamba will be in prison. I can assure you, because he is committing atrocities which have been recognised around the world that in fact, the Zambia Police is the worst on the continent and I didn’t think that as Zambians, we were going to reach that position,” said Nawakwi.
But reacting to this in an interview, Sunday, Musamba said he looked forward to the trial in Nawakwi’s “imagination”, arguing that he always operated according to the rules and procedures.
“When I am in that office, I operate according to the rules, according to procedures. And I can’t think of any rule that I have broken. If she is thinking of public order, public order is under authority of Zambia Police and we execute it accordingly. If you follow public order step by step, I keep explaining time and again that public order gives breathing space to the police. It gives an allowance to make a judgement that the situation, and you see today, we have a section of people trying to disturb public order by imposing their will in terms of their intentions politically. If the police are not there to resolve such, who is going to be there? There is going to be disorder. Some sections of people who complain about police restrictions are just interested in Zambia to go up in flames, and they would have achieved their objective,” he said.
“And this is not going to happen to tell you the truth. As long as the police are there, it’s going to exist to protect the people of Zambia, including Nawakwi. She is one of the people who enjoy peace. Her frustrations are personal and the police are not worried about her frustrations. If I have broken the law, I look forward to that day, her judgement day. So, I look forward to that trial and imprisonment if it’s ever going to happen because I can’t see where I have broken the laws. She is talking imaginary things. That’s my humble reaction to that”.
Musamba said Nawakwi was among the people who had assembled themselves just to cause trouble and nothing else.
“It doesn’t bother me. She is free to say what she likes if it doesn’t break the law. When she says things like that, it doesn’t bother me at all. All she is looking to do is to hurt people like me. Why doesn’t she just wait for that time to hurt me if she has anything at all against me? Those are sections of people who have assembled themselves under auspice and that auspice is just to cause trouble, nothing else. Their intention is just to cause trouble and accuse anyone that stands in their way,” said Musamba.