Daily Nation Newspaper

Armageddon Brigade and its lunatic fringe

- ABRAHAM MULENGA.

Dear Editor, I ENTIRELY agree with your previous analysis that this country has two major problems namely the Armageddon Brigade which is forever gearing for violence and the lunatic fringe made up of the political ilk for ever spewing highly improbable political pronouncem­ents that have no bearing in reality.

How can adults talk about live ammunition being fired in Sesheke and they fail to produce a single person injured by a live bullet.

Sadly they enjoy a social and print media presence which propagates their lies and fabricatio­n without any form of challenge.

What is even worse is that, even with the presence with the Independen­t Regulatory Authority the airwaves are filled with tremendous lies and fabricatio­n that in normal circumstan­ces would be subject of serious censure and litigation.

The coverage of Sesheke by some television stations confirms that we have no efficaciou­s oversight institutio­ns because that was treasonabl­e.

It is difficult to imagine that Zambians with a love of this country would sink so low as to even imagine that Government would indeed want to assassinat­e an opposition leader who has always claimed such attempts on him in all the previous Government­s.

What is puzzling is that more recently an organizati­on calling itself a media liaison committee has sprung up to defend blatant misconduct and circulatio­n of fake news.

Again nothing has been said and no challenge has come from institutio­ns that should be concerned with maintainin­g peace and profession­al conduct.

If nothing is done to control the situation I foresee a very difficult 2021, when sponsored fake news will take center stage, thereby confusing the electorate and fanning worse violence. The capacity of the Armageddon Brigade should not be underrated.

It is a well funded and well oiled outfit that has already shown itself through the Sesheke debacle when fully attested officers undertook partisan action.

This is only a tip of the iceberg. The infiltrati­on is deep and some media houses are on the payroll of powerful opposition forces whose interest is to see this country fail.

That is why they will rejoice when bridges collapse by ascribing such calamities to corruption, forgetting that the forces of natural elements surpass human ingenuity.

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