UPND secretary general Stephen Katuka has urged police to arrest the known culprits who attacked Chilanga UPND aspiring Charmaine Musonda, failure to which the UPND will assist in apprehending the culprits themselves.

In an interview, Katuka said that the UPND will help police catch the culprits and hand them over to police for prosecution if they failed to take corrective measures to bring to book perpetrators of crime.

“The police should apprehend the culprits because they are known culprits. If they do not apprehend the culprits, then UPND will be able to help police get the culprits and hand them over to police for action. We are not tolerating this because we are going towards elections. If we do not act now, as UPND, most of our members will be hacked in their homes as was the case with Charmaine,” Katuka said.

He added that the attack on Musonda was an indictment on women’s participation in politics.

“The attack on Charmaine was a serious indictment on women participation in politics. This is coming at a time when we want to increase the number of women participating in politics, but the violence under the Patriotic Front is creating a very hostile environment, which is going to discourage women from participating because the incident happened at her home where the family saw her being hacked and we will not be surprised if the family asks her not to participate in politics because of violence,” Katuka added.

He urged President Edgar Lungu to issue a decree on political violence as was done by president Levy Mwanawasa.

“This is a sign of failed leadership. President Lungu, by now, since there is a lot of violence by his cadres, we should have seen him directing his cadres to stop violence and not this lip service he has been portraying to the people of Zambia. Condemning, he is condemning, yes, but he should issue a decree the way Mwanawasa did on violence,” urged Katuka.