CHANDA

By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE-
A GROUP of people, suspected to be PF cadres, yesterday attacked the Kanyama Constituency office, robbing people of their cell phones and money.
The cadres, armed with machetes and other weapons, also got away with all electrical appliances from Member of Parliament (MP) Gerry Chanda’s parliamentary office, including two computers.
The MP was not in the office at the time of the attack.
About four people, among them parliamentary office employees, were injured in the fracas and have since sought medication after reporting the attack to the police.
The cadres are calling for Colonel Chanda to step down, accusing him of failing to run his constituency.
But Col Chanda, who is Muchinga Province Minister, charged that he had been vindicated with his comments on Kabusha programme on Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) radio that there was a lot of illegality in Kanyama.
Col Chanda said that the cadres stormed his constituency office around 10:00 hours and started beating people they found there.
He said although they claimed to be PF cadres, he had no reason to believe their reasoning because genuine cadres would not attack their own Government.
Col Chanda said there was too much illegality in the constituency and that the people who attacked his office were infuriated by his statement on radio on Sunday that there were a lot of imposters in Kanyama.
He said he had mentioned during the programme that there were a lot of rude and ‘bad boys’ in his constituency who were purporting to be PF members.
Col Chanda suspected that some members of the opposition had given alcohol to the attackers and that when they got drunk, they were let loose on his office.
Police deputy spokesperson Esther Katongo said the cadres failed to lock up Col Chanda’s office and ended up going away with his office keys and two computers, leaving his constituency office open.
The cadres drove in a minibus to Kanyama Township while displaying PF chitenge materials.
Ms Katongo said the cadres first stormed the area councilor’s office which they locked before proceeding to Col Chanda’s office where they caused havoc.
The cadres got away with two computers and other items which have not yet been identified.
“When they reached the area member of Parliament’s office, they got some two desktop computers and other items after intimidating the people they found,” Ms Katongo said.
Ms Katongo said the cadres also wanted to get a GRZ motor vehicle which was parked outside the office but failed as they were over-powered.
Ms Katongo said that some of the cadres had been identified and police had since launched a manhunt for them.