ADD president Charles Milupi says Patriotic Front (PF) Secretary General Davies Mwila should be charged for ordering ruling party officials to effect a citizens’ arrest on Chishimba Kambwili whenever he insults President Edgar Lungu.

Last week, Mwila directed PF structures to be effecting a citizens’ arrest on Kambwili whenever he insults the President.

“Tekweba ati ngatwaikala tondolo then we are weak (it’s not that when we choose to remain quiet then we are weak). This party has the capacity to stop Kambwili from traveling the entire country. Starting from today I can give instructions. So please arrest Kambwili starting from today. Whoever touches the president is touching the party,” ordered Mwila.

But in an interview, Milupi said Mwila must be made accountable for his statement against a political figure.

“That is a criminal statement. For having issued that, the police must arrest him. He cannot unleash a section of a population on a citizen of this country. Not even to someone who has committed a murder, you cannot instruct people to go and beat him up, let alone a political figure. Whether you like it or not, Chishimba Kambwili is a political leader. And these PF characters, when they came in, they decided that the position of their secretary general was so important that it was now number three in terms of hierarchy in the country. So it’s not a statement from a minor official. In their own estimation we are talking about someone who is number three in the country, instructing people all over the country to beat up a politician. The law does not allow that,” Milupi said

“So that is a criminal statement which Davies Mwila must be made accountable to. He has no right to say that and the matter is before the court. They have arrested him and taken him to the courts.”

He said he was eagerly waiting to see the outcome of this case because it was normal practice in Zambia to refer to people as animals.

“From the courts we want to hear where the insult is because many people get compared to animals. I am from Western Province. I am a Lozi. We respect our Litunga but do you know what we call him? He is an elephant. So I don’t think that if I referred to him as an elephant I can be cited for insulting him. Another name that we have for him is a cow or Namani, and Mpezeni they call him Ngwenyama which is a Lion. So people get compared to animals like in Eastern Province we have Ngulube, Njovu and so on. So we are all sitting now waiting anxiously to hear where the insult was, who was being insulted and that is why we have the courts. They will determine that,” Milupi said.

And Milupi asked PF officials must control themselves from issuing statements that had potential to cause anxiety among the people.

“And for him (Mwila) to decide on behalf of the courts and say ‘beat him up or arrest him and so on.’ How can you arrest somebody who is already arrested? So PF officials are issuing statements in an uncontrollable manner which is giving anxiety to this country. A few days ago, one of their officials [Kebby] Mbewe was saying that Kanganja must resign because he is supporting Kambwili, the other one comes up and says we are going to get water from the Congo River so that we fill the Kariba Dam, again totally unreasonable. And these are senior people the governance of this country. The other one says HH is causing this hunger because he is controlling all the millers and so on but they forgot to tell us that one of the millers in this country GBM is their cadre. Is he selling mealie-meal cheaply? Or are there factors which are causing this mealie-meal to go up which is not under the control of any person but as a result of the government’s inability to economically manage this country?” asked Milupi.