UPND CRIES FOUL OVER FRANK TAYALI’S ARREST

By ADRIAN MWANZA                        THE arrest of UPND Ndola Central aspiring Member of Parliament Frank Tayali was concocted by the Zambia Police to silence him, party spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa, has claimed. Mr Mweetwa dismissed allegations that Mr Tayali had damaged a police vehicle and said it was a staged act by the police. However, Police deputy spokesperson Danny Mwale dispelled Mr Mweetwa’s allegations and described them as absurd. Mr Mwale said it was not possible that police officers could pick up Mr Tayali for no apparent reason. “Surely, why should we pick up an individual who has not committed any crime but the thing is that we are going to present the evidence in court to prove that indeed Mr Tayali is guilty,” Mr Mwale said. He said political parties should always be factual and not accuse the police of matters that were not actually true and denting their image. Mr Mweetwa in an interview said the Ndola Central aspiring candidate was summoned by the police for playing loud music at night which was not an offence. He wondered why the police could implicate Mr Tayali in such a way even when they knew that this was not the case. Mr Mweetwa said that the real reason he was arrested was the fact that Mr Tayali had a standoff with the Copperbelt Police command a week ago after they approached a group of people that were removing campaign materials. Mr Mweetwa said that the police had a grudge against Mr Tayali and that they were just waiting for the right opportunity to pin him to hinder his campaign.