Police had reported that the leader of the SOCIALIST Party, Fred Mmembe, had been detained for firing a gun and assaulting someone in Serenje.
Contrary to what Mr. Mmembe claims, by firing his gun, he prevented several United Party for National Development (UPND) and Socialist Party cadres who wished to use violence from dying.
He claims that he actually wasn’t anywhere near the violence of which he is alleged to have been a part and that he just fired his gun to break up the fighting.
In a Facebook post on his page, Mr. Mmembe claimed that he had been falsely accused of participating in political violence during the ongoing campaigning for the Serenje district by-elections.
“Let’s not allow ourselves to be deceived that political violence ended with the removal of the Patriotic Front from government. It didn’t.
Yesterday, we were attacked, and after being attacked we are now being framed as the attackers, as the violent ones. This is what used to happen under the PF. UPND used to be framed as the attackers when they were the victims.”
“Today, I am being accused of assaulting a UPND cadre when I was nowhere near. I saved a situation that could have ended up with the death of a UPND or Socialist Party cadre when I was nowhere near,” he said.
Mr Mmembe said he fired a few shots to disperse the people and, indeed, they managed to run away.
He noted that if he had not done that , there would have been deaths.
“Nobody was aimed at, nobody was assaulted by myself. But today, there is an attempt to make me look like a violent person, which I am not. It won’t work.Aba bemba batila Ubujwnjeshi Bwankoko Pungwa Tasakamana. Ubucenjeshi bumo chimo kupusa,” he said.
He states that a warn and caution statement has been recorded from him this morning.
“I was the first one to go to the police to complain about this violence. The UPND cadres who attacked us were nowhere near the police post or police station. They have not been arrested; they are not in anyway being questioned. We, the victims, are the ones who are being turned into the attackers. This is the situation we are in,” he said.
Mr Mmembe further claimed that it was infact him who was assaulted in the presence of police officers.
