UPND CHAIR CLOBBERED
…dragged out of church by cadres for ‘eating’ State House money alone
By Mast Reporter
UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) cadres in Mazabuka on Saturday forced their district chairman Wilfred Mulomba out of a Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church service and beat him to a near-pulp for allegedly ‘eating’ State House money alone.
After a week-long manhunt, the cadres finally caught the “elusive” Mulomba at the SDA church as he was worshiping his Creator in heaven, probably thanking him for the unexpected windfall.
They punched and kicked him like a common thief in full view of fellow worshipers for allegedly failing to share the money given to him by a named State House aide during the SDA Church Southern Zambia Union Conference Dorcas Society rally at Rusangu University in Monze, Southern Province, recently.
The State House aide is reported to have given Mulomba K20,000 cash for party mobilisation in the district, but the angry cadres said he [Mulomba] kept the money without sharing it with other party officials and became elusive.
On Saturday, the angry cadres who had been looking for Mulomba since the Rusangu Dorcas rally, followed him at the Nakambala North Seventh Day Adventist Church where he was worshiping and demanded the money he had been keeping for mobilisation there and then.
“We grilled Mulomba to explain why he had not been picking our calls and responding to our text messages demanding that he make available the funds for all of us to benefit,” one of the cadres who asked not to be identified said in an interview with The Mast from Mazabuka yesterday.
Another eye witness, who was also at the church attending the service, said the rowdy cadres rejected Mulomba’s pleas to resolve the matter after church, meaning after the Sabbath.
“They were shouting that ‘this man wants to eat the money from State House alone, kulibe kudya eka ndalama [he can’t eat the money alone. He was given the money for mobilisation by **** but he wants to eat it alone. Kulibe, uzatipasa ndalama, bonse tili nanjala [it won’t happen, you’ll give us the money because we’re also hungry]. Why do you want to hold on to the money like that? Is it your money? Give us the money’. They were uncompromising,” she narrated.
The cadres vowed not to work with leaders they described as “selfish” and “uncaring” any more.
“Why being selfish over that money? Did **** give you the money to give your family? Bring the money we share. You will give us the money,” the cadres shouted as they kept dragging Mulomba out of the church and beating him mercilessly, to the shock of other congregants.
Southern Province commissioner of police Auxensio Daka said in a statement three of the cadres had been identified as Chrispin Moomba, 40, Life Moonga, 29, and Robson Mbewe, 29.
Daka said Moomba, Moonga, Mbewe and other yet-to-be-identified cadres dragged Mulomba out of the Nakambala North Seventh Day Adventist Church as he was worshiping and beat him with fists and kicks while demanding for the money he was given by State House.
He said Mulomba suffered injuries, including a painful jaw, cuts on the tongue and head, and complained of general body pains.
Daka said members of the church intervened and rescued Mulomba from further punishment by hiding him in one of the rooms within the building for his safety.
The cadres fled the scene and said the business was not yet over, promising to deal with him at another opportune time.
Daka said police in Mazabuka had opened a docket and launched an investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice, though no individual had been arrested.
Efforts to get a comment from Mulomba, who is recovering from the clobbering, proved futile as his line went unanswered.
