POLICE IGNORE GOVT ORDER
…Police will not demolish HH fence, “I don’t get orders from the Ministry of Lands” - Kapeso
THE police will not bring down an illegal fence on over I, 500 hectares of grazing land in Namwala erected by UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema’s workers, because they do not act on instructions from the Ministry of Lands but the inspector general of police, says Southern province police chief Bonny Kapeso.
Mr Hichilema’s workers reportedly resumed fencing of the communal land which has been a source of livelihood for over 600 villages since time in memorial, despite a directive by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Jean Kapata to stop.
The minister had earlier in the week promised that the police would move in and arrest the situation if indeed the fencing had continued.
When asked when police would demolish the fence in question following Ms Kapata’s pronouncement, Mr Kapeso said that “I do not get instructions from the Ministry of Lands’. He said that his office gets instructions from the office of the inspector general, hunting that no action would be taken at the moment.
“Which fence? Ah I take instructions from the IG, my office does not take instructions from the Ministry of Lands that is all I can say, that is all,” he charged.
Earlier, Namwala district commissioner Mary Sakala told Daily Nation that the communal land was not only for animal grazing but other purposes too.
Ms Sakala said that villagers in surrounding areas collect their herbal medicines from the same location and that if it was fenced off, 600 villages would be disadvantaged.
The DC revealed that very recently she received complaints from some headmen that Mr Hichilema had defied the government
order as his workers had resumed the fencing which had earlier been halted by government.