Opposition All People’s Congress president Nason Msoni has issued a red alert against threats targeted at parliamentarians pushing the release of the draft constitution.
Defence minister Edgar Lungu has weighed in with attempts to involve military personnel to quell protests by lawmakers pushing a new constitution.
A leader of the ruling Patriotic Front militia Kennedy Kamba has also threatened to mobilise the panga weilding youths to attack legislators inside the house.
Members of Parliament brought business to a standstill last week Wednesday and Thursday forcing the speaker of the National Assembly to schedule a meeting for today to resolve the impasse.
But PF officials have been issuing threats and refusing to a meeting on the constitution.
Below is the statement issued by Msoni
Stop threatening opposition Members of parliament and citizens advocating for the immediate release and road map of the draft constitution making process with lethal action from the nation’s deadly external security forces (Zambia defense forces).
The call by the Zambian defense minister Edgar Lungu to unleash lethal force on defenseless citizens is beyond tolerance and is unacceptable behavior requiring the immediate international condemnation from the international community.
We further find the credible threats being issued by the ruling party thugs (militia) on democratically elected members of parliament from the opposition demanding for the restoration of the hijacked constitutional making process by the regime to be most unfortunate and regrettable.
We think this is state sponsored terrorism meant to subvert the legitimate process by using criminal tactics and criminal gangs to silence those demanding for a people driven constitutional-making process.
We also think that the re-deployment of heavily armed police officers at parliament building is meant to intimidate and cow opposition members of parliament into submission. The presence of police at parliament is undermining the very bedrock of sovereignty upon which the Zambian parliament hinges.
We think the regime has become more dangerously desperate and it’s just a matter of time before innocent blood is needlessly spilt and lost at the hands of the regime.
We will unequivocally demand that known individuals (bandits) bankrolling violence and using legitimate state tools of violence for self-preservation to be made accountable for their role and action in the matrix of violence. We have no-doubt that there is unraveling state sponsored violence and premeditated violence waiting to happen anytime soon.
We call to this end the goodwill citizens of the international community to pray for Zambia at this hour of need and destiny.
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