Nevers Mumba in police cells
The Lusaka Magistrate has granted Movement for Multparty Democracy factional leader Dr Nevers Mumba bail.
Earlier the state rejected an application by Dr Mumba’s lawyers to have him bailed out. The state Prosecutor said Dr Mumba needed to be kept in custody of the police because he is a danger to the national security.
The state agued that Dr Mumba was planning on blocking the inauguration of President-elect Edgar Lungu and his running-mate Inonge Mutukwa Wina.
Magistrate David Simusamba granted Mumba bail in the afternoon after failing to make a ruling earlier in the morning.
Dr Mumba who backed UPND in the general elections was arrested on Saturday for alleged criminal trespass at Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation – ZNBC and remained in custody at Woodlands Police Station in Lusaka the whole weekend.
Dr Mumba was picked up from his residence after police’s search of possessing illegal firearm yielded no success.
Dr Mumba allegedly forced his way to ZNBC Studio in Lusaka where he claims to have gone on Thursday 8th September to verify a news item that had ran on the 1900hrs news bulletin related to the on-going Presidential Petition court.
Meanwhile UPND have accused President Elect Edgar Lungu of displaying dictatorial tendencies through the arrest of the former Vice President.
“This arrest is nothing but part of a wider clampdown on democratic freedoms which started with the closure of the privately owned Post newspaper, followed by Muvi TV, Komboni and Itezhi-Tezhi radio stations planned ahead of rigging the elections. It is part of a strategy to intimidate and shut the voices of the opposition and any dissenting voice following the controvertial August elections which are widely believed to have been won by the UPND,” Garry Nkombo, newly Mazabuka elected MP
said earlier