The detention of the Patriotic Front (PF) hopeful president Emmanuel Mwamba has triggered mixed reactions from governance experts.
A Governance Expert Dr. Alex Ngoma said that it is disappointing to note that the police force is doing the opposite of what the Republican President Mr. Hakainde Hichilema said they should not be doing.
“The president has said that the police should arrest the person after investigations have been concluded,” Dr. Ngoma said.
Dr. Ngoma added that the president said that he wants people to be charged within 48 hours after being arrested, saying that this is not happening.
“There are so many people in this country that are spending a lot of days in prison cells without being charged,” Dr. Ngoma said.
Dr. Ngoma appealed to the republican president to ensure that his directives are enforced to ensure that his vision for this country bears on the activities of everyone else.
He further said that such actions by the police are making the political party in government more unpopular, adding that he expects the president to intervene.
However, another Governance Expert and Human Rights Activist Wesley Miyanda, said the arrest of Mr. Mwamba has been blown out of proportion by some political surrogates.
Mr. Miyanda said the allegations levelled against Mr. Mwamba of forging documents are serious, saying that they border on discrediting the republican president.
“When someone commits a crime, automatically qualifies himself to be called a criminal and needs to be treated just that,” Mr. Miyanda said.
Mr. Miyanda said the police officers are operating within the confines of the law, to ensure that every citizen is accorded a fair share of justice regardless of their tribal, political or regional affiliations.
He further said that the only challenge is that those who are PF aligned are finding it hard to convince their minds that they are no longer in power, saying that most of them are still arrogant and they think they are above the law.