Church mother bodies demand HH’s release

Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu address a news conference

Three church mother bodies have demanded the immediate release of incarcerated UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema.

The Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops, Council of Churches in Zambia and Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia have said that Mr Hichilema’s continued detention is a sign of dictatorship in the country.

Speaking on behalf of the three church mothers bodies during a joint news conference, ZCCB President Telesphore Mpundu explained that they have made several attempts to meet with President Edgar Lungu with a view of engaging him on the matter have failed.

Archbishop Mpundu has questioned the motive behind the continued incarceration of Mr. Hichilema, noting that before the arrest of the opposition leader, two senior PF members namely Steven Kampyongo and Mumbi Phiri clearly told the nation at different occasions that the UPND leader would be charged with treason and treated like a rat.

He has since advised that for the sake of peace and easing of political tension Mr. Hichilema should be released from Mukobeko maximum prison and be placed on house arrest instead as his case is not criminal, but a political case.

Archbishop Mpundu has noted that the country is in all, except in designation a dictatorship and if it is not yet, the nation is not far from it with current state of affairs.

And the three church mother bodies have demanded for an all inclusive national indaba which should address the many challenges the nation is facing.

Archbishop Mpundu has also called on President Lungu to act as the republican president whose aim is not only to protect the good of the members of the Patriotic Front party, but the nation as a whole.