FORMER Special Assistant to the President for Press and Public Relations Amos Chanda has denied any dealings with FDD leader Edith Nawakwi in connection with the abduction saga of Pheluna and Milton Hatembo.

Reacting to a circulating claim that he was collaborating with Nawakwi, Chanda said in a statement, Monday, that he had no knowledge of the said plan to abduct and terminate the lives of the Hatembos, adding that he has since reported the matter to the police for necessary action.

“I have become aware of very damaging communications on various digital media platforms purporting my nefarious involvement in some underworld operation supposedly with Ms Edith Nawakwi, suggesting that I was directing her actions to abduct, and or “terminate” the lives of her “abductees”. It is often my default position to ignore such online mischief for what it is. But I am aware from public media reports that a highly publicised case of abduction is before the courts of law and that in various media outlets, Ms Nawakwi has been quoted as having extended details about this case. I neither have any knowledge nor interest in this case, nor have I ever spoken to her on this or indeed any other matter to warrant my introduction into this matter,

“For the record, I last saw Ms Nawakwi on March 29, 2016 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross during an inter-party political meeting for presidential candidates. I have reason to believe that the purported digital transcripts may not be from Ms Nawakwi given the many doggy features around them, but I will leave that to the police and other relevant law enforcement organs before whom I have laid my complaint. Given the gravity of the offence of abduction being a serious felony, and given that the last 48 hours have been a hell of agony for my family and I to reassure our friends I have no involvement whatsoever in the alleged mischief, I have decided to make this public statement that I have since reported the matter to the police for necessary action.”

Chanda said he was confident that the culprits would be apprehended.

“I fully understand that the political silly season is upon us, and others have casually suggested that I should let this matter slide, but I want to emphasise that the far-reaching extent of the consequences of these publications needs to be dealt with decisively to forestall a recurrence of the same. I am confident that police will apprehend the culprits because they were dumb enough to leave their digital footprint and criminal enough to blatantly assail the reputations of innocent people in the manner they have done. Further, with the enabled capability law enforcement agencies have, following the enactment of the new cyber crimes law, it should be fairly easy to bring to an end the widespread decadent behaviour by some low lives who appeal to base instincts of the digital followers to besmirch the reputations of others,” stated Chanda.