POLICE yesterday blocked MMD leader Nevers Mumba from going to Vubwi on account that President Edgar Lungu was scheduled to visit the area.

In an interview, Mumba said he was given a permit which was later cancelled.

“Our leaders had met for us to launch at the district level our national mobilization for 2021. You know, we launched it in Lusaka last Saturday and the Patriotic Front decided that they were not going to allow us to come into Vubwi so they sent the police with guns and teargas to stop us from coming into Vubwi. We had a big confrontation with them and there were threats that should we proceed beyond a certain point, they will not be blamed for what they are going to do. Meaning that if they shot at me, I should not blame them if I go beyond that mark. We went to the police station and we asked them to explain what the law they were using to stop us from addressing our people especially that we had a permit which they cancelled today at 09:00 hours and they came to the road to tell us to come back,” Mumba narrated.

“[We were told] that the President is coming to the province one of these days. So because the President is coming, then we cannot come to Vubwi. We don’t know whether it is next week or the other week when he will be coming. But that is not the issue, we had a permit and whether the President is coming or not, all there is to do is to make sure that we are not going to an area where he is and he is not coming to where we are.”

Mumba experienced sadness at the police unprofessionalism.

“What is very sad is that we are still entertaining such behavior and conduct from the police. No Zambian should respect the police who are not professional, they are thugs and they should be treated as thugs. A policeman who should be respected is the one who respects the law and is professional. The moment they start to do politics because a politician has told them, they are no longer policemen. We have taken a stance that Zambians must brace themselves for a very rough time but we want to promise them as leaders that we are ready to pay any price to ensure that democracy and freedom for all is exercised by all of us so there is no retreat. Mobilization for the province continues and we shall not slow down at all,” said Mumba.

“All this must not be entertained by anybody. We are watching and we are making decisions on how we are going to deal with the unprofessional police moving forward. You will recall that my experiences in Eastern Province have always been like this. It is here in Eastern Province where I had meetings with our membership in the bush because the police could not allow me to have meetings here. But this time we will not be afraid we are going to finish our program and we do the mobilization. We are going to re-strategize and we will start a disobedient campaign.”

However, this interview was cut short because according to Mumba, he was being followed by the police.