PF lawyer Tutwa Ngulube says government is trying to embarrass former president Edgar Lungu by harassing his close family members.

And Ngulube says law enforcement agencies are getting closer and closer to Lungu.

On Wednesday, Lungu’s son, Dalitso, was interrogated by a joint investigations team in relation to the ownership of nine vehicles which allegedly belong to his company.

Speaking to journalists after his client was interrogated for more than an hour, Dalitso’s lawyer Charles Changano explained that the officers wanted proof of whether the vehicles belonged to Dalitso’s company or a family company.

The lawyer said they were able to prove, through Dalitso, that the said vehicles were bought by the company.

“The interview was about the nine vehicles which the company has, that is Sarodi Limited. They wanted proof [of] whether the motor vehicles belonged to Dalitso Lungu’s company. Or a family company to say. So we have proved through our client that the vehicles were bought by the company. And we have shown to them that we have RTSA documents pertaining to the company and the motor vehicles. So there is nothing that we can be looking for any further. We hope the police will look at the documents and take the vehicles back,” said Changano.

But commenting on this in an interview, Ngulube said it was unfortunate that government was trying to embarrass Lungu when he did a lot for Zambia.

“They had to embarrass him by searching the [former] First Lady, seizing vehicles from his son, it is very clear, it is even in public domain. When the ACC told us and the nation that it is difficult to arrest Lungu, there is nothing, we can’t find anything, it shows you that they are actually targeting him. They have been investigating him, they have failed. You remember when ECL was president, all those ministers who were being pursued by ACC, ECL allowed them to be prosecuted, I represented Chitalu Chilufya, minister of health he was appearing in court. It is clear they just want to embarrass ECL. ECL was very tough against corruption and he used to speak against it openly,” he said.

“We will not even entertain that idea of ECL’s family being embarrassed, ECL did a lot for this country. ECL as a president and ECL as an individual did a lot for this country. So we will not allow his legacy to be tarnished all in the name of witch hunt. ECL legacy cannot be compared to any. Let them not harass innocent individuals.”

And Ngulube said law enforcement agencies were getting closer to Lungu.

“At the end of the day, they are getting closer and closer to his inner circle. They have harassed the [former] first lady, they have harassed his daughter, they have harassed his son. The next thing they will be harassing him. They know that with his immunity, they can’t do anything to him, they can’t touch him. But they will inconvenience him because of his wife and children are being harassed, he is as good as you being harassed. He is human, he is a father and has got feelings, when state agents are actually harassing your own son, you can actually be human enough to feel the pain and the anger and the anguish. So it is unfortunate that government is wasting a lot of resources just dealing with individuals,” Ngulube said.

Ngulube said all those that were being harassed would be compensated.

“As far as we are concerned, people like [Ronald] Chitotela who are even acquitted by the court, they wake up today and say we want them to be tried again. It shows you that they are hell bent on wasting the nation’s resources. Some of those that they are following up actually have the capacity to build houses that they are trying to grab. It is an offense to own a house if you were in PF government. This witch hunt, from my experience as a politician and as a lawyer, I know that there is always a price to be paid and the price will be paid by the country. All those being harassed will be compensated by the state,” said Ngulube.

“Let them look at priorities in life, what are the priorities of life, what are people lacking, what do people want, not forcing people into servitude, forcing people to get into hiding. You can’t be hiding in your own country. Apart from Zambia being a democratic state, we can’t hide, where are we going to go simply because you were PF. What PF lost was power, PF lost elections, it did not lose its membership.”