Fugitive parliamentarian Emmanuel Jay Banda likes feigning illness, Home Affairs and Internal Security Minister Jack Mwiimbu has charged.
Mwiimbu has also labeled as suspicious the different remarks made about Banda’s supposed illness by different Patriotic Front (PF) party figures, not long before he (Banda) escaped from lawful custody.
Addressing a media briefing yesterday at which he disclosed Banda’s disappearance from Chipata General Hospital where he was being treated for hernia while in the custody of the Zambia Correctional Services (ZCS), Mwiimbu said Banda has a recorded history of pretending to be sick when in fact not.
“Don’t you recall that in 2021 prior to the elections, he was feigning that he could not walk, that his limbs were failing him, and he alleged that he was beaten by supporters of Dora Siliya [the then incumbent Member of Parliament and fellow contender for the seat]. He was always in a wheelchair trying to seek sympathy from the electorates,” recollected Mwiimbu.
“He likes feigning illness, some of these are not true just like he did in 2021. You can check and find him being wheeled around in a wheelchair when, in fact, there was no genuine illness.”
Mwiimbu further accused the PF of weaving and driving a narrative intended to project Banda as a victim while inciting the public against the government.
“I’d like to tell the nation that the PF has been driving a narrative and has even shown purported exhibits of JJ Banda wherein they were showing him as having his leg amputated. The Facebook page of their media chairman, Emmanuel Mwamba, was awash with those images.”
“As if that was not enough, the former president Edgar Lungu posted yesterday on his Facebook page malicious and preposterous accusations against the current President and he informed the nation and the world that President Hichilema shall be held accountable in the event that JJ Banda dies.”
Mwiimbu said according to Lungu, from the time he was taken into custody, Banda has always been in chains, including when he was in hospital, and was being tortured by the government.
The Minister wondered how Banda escaped from lawful custody if he was under chains, as claimed by Lungu and others.
“How did he escape if his leg was amputated, how did he do that? How possible was it that JJ Banda, whilst in hospital, was able to subject himself to the procedure of submersing himself in saltwater if he was in chains? How possible is it that if was in chains, he was able to jump through the window or whichever means he used?” Mwiimbu wondered.
On 4 August, Banda escaped from the lawful custody of the ZCS at Chipata General Hospital, purportedly through a toilet window. He was being guarded by three ZCS officers and two police officers, who are currently detained as investigations into how this daring escape happened under their watch. Investigations continue.
