Kanganja Dismisses HH Assassination Attempt
Police Inspector General Kakoma Kanganja has dismissed widespread reports that police shot at UPND Alliance presidential candidate Hakainde Hichilema in the Copperbelt on Sunday. The Inspector General has described the reports as “cheap propaganda” and insisted that officers were armed only with smoke canisters.
The dismissal follows multiple credible reports that the UPND leader was indeed fired at by heavily armed police officers as he was making his way to a local church in Chingola.
Pictures shared on social media show the armed officers cruising in pickup trucks along Chingola’s main road in an attempt to block Mr Hichilema’s motorcade. They then opened fire on the UPND procession, using a combination of smoke canisters and live ammunition. Thankfully, no one has been reported as injured.
In a statement following the incident, Mr Hichilema said “this is barbaric and we won’t tolerate it anymore.”
He added, “To the normal Police, we say stop fighting us on behalf of the corrupt few because we are actually fighting for you.”
“We feel for these Police officers but our advice to them especially those ones willing and ready to kill us or any other citizen on behalf of PF is that we are doing this for you, your family because we live in the same communities impoverished by the corrupt few.This too shall pass and in two months time when in office, Zambia shall be back to a Democratic State. When the time is ripe, not even a gun can stop it and it’s time.” HH concluded.
Inspector General Kanganja maintains that the police acted proportionately over the weekend and accuses Mr Hichilema of turning his attendance at a church service into a mass event, which are currently outlawed under coronavirus regulations.
Meanwhile, Senior Chief Mukuni of the Leya people has said he will hold President Edgar Lungu personally responsible if anything should happen to HH.
In a statement to the media, the senior chief described the incident on Sunday as “very dangerous” and warned that the situation could escalate further unless Mr Lungu takes control of the country’s national security.
“The President must not risk national unity and peace for his own political reasons. There is so much at stake in terms of peace,” he advised.
Opposition leader Felix Mutati, president of the Movement for Democratic Change, has also condemned the incident, describing it as “the darkest day in the country’s democracy” and a sign of “growing desperation in the PF camp”.
At a press conference for UPND Alliance partners in Lusaka, HH’s running mate Mutale Nalumango said the Patriotic Front were trying to kill Mr Hichilema because they were desperate and felt their time in office drawing to a close. She charged the people of Zambia not to allow President Lungu to stage a coup against the country’s constitution.
Armed police officers blockaded the UPND procession in Chingola on Sunday.
Police fired a combination of live rounds and smoke grenades against opposition party members.
Police held up Mr Hichilema on his way to a church service in Chingola.