Now that the independent member of parliament for Petauke Central, Mr. Emmanuel Jay Banda, has been “found” safe and alive, perhaps it’s time to rationally dissect this very bizarre incident that we woke up to on Saturday, May 25, ironically Africa Freedom Day.
So, the alleged abduction was not first reported or announced to the public by the police but interestingly by some very well-known PF specialists, who are also social media enthusiasts and warriors. These are people whose day jobs appear to be peddling all manner of information skewed to suit their political aim. How did they know so quickly?
My questions here are: did the police somehow inquire from or mention to a PF member that Banda’s car had been found abandoned? Did the same good Samaritan notify someone in the PF or Banda’s family? That, of course, assumes that at the time this very concerned member of the public made the report to the police, he had become aware that the vehicle was the property of Banda, and he knew who Banda was. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have known to call the PF. Or shall I assume that the note gave him all that information?
Before I get into picking the pieces, I must say how strangely I thought it that right off the bat, those who dropped this “bombshell” pointed a finger at the government. There was seemingly no room to suspect outright criminal elements unassociated with the state. People converged at a police station demanding to search inside and outside, I imagine, for the missing lawmaker.
Let me return to making an attempt to unravel the pieces.
Banda leaves home to go to a meeting, and in a space of 57 minutes (21:30h when he leaves his Ibex home and 22:27 when he arrives at his other home in Kamwala South), has he managed to have his meeting? Was his meeting aborted/rescheduled, or was it never his intention to attend a meeting but to go straight to his other home?
Anyway, not to digress, but in between moving from one home, a meeting, another home, and returning to the home he had left at 21:30 on Friday, May 24, he somehow finds himself a subject of whatever it is that causes him to “write” and leave behind an obscure note. The note is so obscure as to be nonsensical. From my own understanding, the only purpose it’s intended to serve is to let whoever finds the car know that it belongs to Banda.
In the dead of the night, some random member of the public walking or driving, I don’t know, sees a vehicle with doors open and engine running and is so drawn to this unusual scene that, putting aside any concerns for his own safety, he goes to the car and determines that it is certainly peculiar and contacts the police around 03:30. Again, I ask, who did this first person on the scene call first – the police of PF members – and whose phone did he use to make the calls?
Incidentally, the car is conveniently abandoned only 2.6 kilometers away from Ibex Hill police station in an area more secure than many others. I mean, other than a police station, isn’t there a huge ZAF presence? But somehow, Jay Jay, who was, some rumor has it, tailed through less safe neighborhoods (albeit with police presence, too), was finally accosted a stone’s throw away from a police station.
Then the PF and UKA took over, with their misinformation machinery and pseudo-gallantry in overdrive!
I’ve already said that it’s truly weird how the PF never considered any other cause of Banda’s supposed disappearance. They just latched onto their tunnel vision of this being the doing of the state or elements associated with the state, such as the ruling party. How they made their investigations and came up with suspects in such record time is truly worthy of multiple awards and should find itself in some criminal investigations training syllabus. People get abducted for ransom, to be robbed, or for a myriad of personal retribution reasons, but not Emmanuel JJ Banda!
Come early Monday—there’s really something peculiar about these eerily early hours in this case—again, it’s the PF announcing Banda’s discovery in Kafue. Somehow, the lot of them managed to converge in Kafue in record time! Nangu tapasoswa!
This is all too shambolically orchestrated for my comfort, and I know that I’m not the only one thinking it. I know so because many people are voicing these same questions and bewilderment across social media. It has the makings of things we’ve seen before, with the same people taking centre stage in this bizarre incident. After the recent manic antics of Edgar Lungu, which went on steroids last week, my curiosity is piqued even more.
And in another strange twist to this puzzle, an alleged abduction somewhat turned on the taps of unbridled tribal rantings and hate for one tribe and another. How and why did all these things find themselves in this pot?
Anyway, I’m very glad that he has been found alive and was not “sacrificed” for some end known only by the people behind all of this. I wait with bated breath for this story to unfold.
