UPND CHIEF NABBED
…As police investigate Senior Chief Mweemba’s palace bombing
By BENNIE MUNDANDO POLICE in Sinazongwe have nabbed UPND council chairperson Alick Muleya to help with investigations over the burning of Senior Chief Mweemba’s house which has left one person dead and three others, including the chief himself, hos-pitalised.
But the UPND leadership in the district have protested the development saying the burning of Senior Chief Mweemba’s house was being used to settle scores with the ruling party and have appealed to the powers that be not to take the development political.
Police sources in Sinazongwe told the Daily Nation yesterday that Mr. Muleya was picked up on Monday morning from Sinazongwe before he was transferred to Choma the same day to help with investigations.
But the sources could not give details and referred all queries to the provincial leadership.
When contacted for a comment, Southern Prov-ince police commissioner Bonny Kapeso, who could neither confirm nor deny the development, said the police will talk to as many people as pos-sible in their quest to establish the truth.
Mr. Kapeso said the arrest of anyone by police in connection with the petrol-bombing of Senior Chief Mweemba’s house was very much in order as it was part of the investigations to establish who was behind the barbaric act.
“We have investigations going on. During inves-tigations, we talk to as many people as possible and so, if he is one of those people we feel we can talk to, we will talk to him. That is very much in order. It is part of the investigations,” Mr. Kapeso said.
But UPND district spokesperson George Bbabbi described the arrest of Mr. Muleya as total witch-hunt, claiming that all indicators showed that the people who could have been behind the burning of the chief’s house could be the same people he was involved in the succession wrangles with since 2007.
Mr. Bbabbi said the party had no problem with whom the police chose to arrest to help with in-vestigations but maintained that Mr. Muleya would be vindicated because he was not the type of a person known to cause trouble in the com-munity.
“Yes I can confirm that he has been arrested. I was in Choma at the time they were putting him in the cells but realistically speaking, politicising a clear case of succession disputes is unfortunate. Mr. Muleya is not even from Mweemba chiefdom which is presided by the Baleya clan. He is from the Bayuni clan and so, where is the connection?
“My appeal to all the people in Sinazongwe, in-cluding our party members, is to remain calm and allow the police to thoroughly investigate the matter and bring the culprits to book. We believe the earlier that is done, the better because that is the only way our chairperson will be will be exoner-ated,” Mr. Bbabbi said.
Unidentified people last Friday petro-bombed the house in which Edison Shamu, 67, (Senior Chief Mweemba), Clement Hantobolo, 37, Paul Sina-katongo, 48, and Mubita Mubita, 19, all of Kanyemba village were sleeping.
The four sustained serious burns and were rushed to Maamba District Hospital where they were re-ferred to Livingstone General hospital. Mr. Mu-bita died the same day.