UPND brutalises, abducts Lubinda
Thandizo Banda
UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) cadres yesterday assaulted and abducted Patriotic Front (PF) acting president Given Lubinda in Kabwe in full view of the policed.
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A video posted on social media showed a horde of UPND cadres, one of them wearing a branded party T-shirt and brandishing a club, roughly dragging Lubinda through the gate out of the premises where he had been meeting party officials.
PF member of the central committee Brian Mundibile said Lubinda was attacked and seized by the violent cadres when he was addressing party officials ahead of the opposition party’s convention.
“We have received some very disturbing reports from Kabwe that Honourable Given Lubinda has been abducted. He’s been brutalised by suspected UPND cadres who interrupted his meeting,” Mundibile said.
He said the UPND cadres removed PF officials from the meeting before severely beating Lubinda.
“They later abducted him and sped off in a pickup whose details were yet to be made available to the police. The purpose of this address is to call upon the Inspector General of Police to immediately stop these political attacks,” Mundibile said.
He wondered why abductions were the order of the day under the UPND.
“I do not think any citizen can today recount or catalogue the events of abductions as we have them today. Today, abductions are the order of the day. There is no freedom of association, no freedom of speech. What wrong has comrade Lubinda done? We all know that we are going for the general elections next year. As a part of the PF, we have our intra-party elections. We have been engaging our party officials to lobby for support for our intra-party elections in preparation for the general election,” Mundibile said.
Police officers at the scene in Kabwe said Lubinda was beaten and assaulted at Three Seasons Misuku Lodge in Kabwe by known UPND cadres.
The officers who could not speak on record said the cadres, carrying assorted weapons, stormed Misuku Lodge around 13:30 hours, about 10 minutes after the start, and dispersed the PF members in attendance, including the PF security team, and sealed off the entrance.
The armed UPND cadres mobilised and surrounded the lodge in full view of the police officers, who they threatened with transfers and dismissals.
Police officers who attempted to evacuate Lubinda were overpowered by the cadres who grabbed the PF acting president and beat him and dragged him to the road, warning him never to set foot in Kabwe.
Plain-cloths police officers watched helplessly as the UPND took turns in beating Lubinda.
Central Province acting police commissioner Lemekani Chirwa was not immediately available to comment on the matter.
