Bible Gospel Church of Africa (BIGOCA) Matero congregation Bishop Peter Ndhlovu has come under pressure for receiving a K20 million donation from Matero Member of Parliment Miles Sampa just days after a violent attack on civil society organisations and journalists by a Patriotic Front militia.
Sampa, who has been named as one of the architects of the violence that was PF instigated during a Black Friday church service, visited the church on Sunday and apologized for the violence, which featured PF youths wielding matches, pangas, axe handles and knives attacking congregrants at the peaceful ceremony.
Sampa, who reportedly transported the cadres and dropped them near the venue to prepare the attack, was back to apologize, albeit not as a perpetrator.
Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia Executive Director Pukuta Mwanza said it was “an act of mockery” for Sampa to have the courage to go to the same venue where PF instigated violence was meted.
He also said it was wrong for the church to have accepted the ‘gift’ from Sampa.
“You see there are a lot of questions surrounding the Matero violence and now the MP goes there to donate money, how? What does it entail? he said.
“We are a little let down by that and we would not have expected the money to be accepted.”
And Bowman Lusambo, a youth chairperson of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), said what Sampa did amounted to bribery.
“What was he paying that money for? Why did he find it convinient to go there? This somehow tells you the whole story about the PF ‘s role in this whole saga,” Lusambo said.
“That was an act of bribery and Sampa should just surrender his youth.”
PF youths on Friday last week attacked congregants at the Matero BIGOCA church where a consortium of 11 Civil Society Organizations had gathered to protest the removal of subsidies.
The state media and government loyal newspaper The Post have largely played down the incident, carrying headlines such as “PF youths disrupt prayers for Sata“.
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