Leader of Opposition in Parliament, George Chaponda has proposed that the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) should replace the Malawi Police Service as security providers at Parliament.
Chaponda was reacting to yesterday’s incident where Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) parliamentarians for Zomba Malosa, Grace Kwerepeta and Lonnie Chijere Phiri of Zomba Malosa, had tyres of their vehicles deflated by unknown thugs, just after the departure of president Lazarus Chakwera who went to answer questions from the MPs.
“I think the best would be to appeal to the army to come because I don’t think police can do if that thing happened while the Inspector General was here and failed to address the issue,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chaponda suspects that the thugs were sent by the MCP as intimidation following the opposition stand on the State of National Address (SONA) that was presented by President Chakwera last week.
The issue was raised today, morning by Thyolo Central MP, Ben Phiri who suggested that the August House, suspend business to critically look into the matter, but his demands were declined by Leader of the House, Richard Chimwendo Banda.
Before the lunch break, the house agreed that MCP, DPP and UDF should send two representatives each, to security office of the parliament and watch the footage to see what happened.
Meanwhile, there were disagreements in the afternoon that saw Speaker Catherine Gotani Hara, suspending the house for close to an hour, as there was a debate on whether the footage should be played in the house.
Later, the footage was played in the August House, and a resolution was made that the video should be submitted to relevant authorities for the way forward.
Commenting on the issue, Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda condemned the attacks of members of Parliament.
“The video has been very clear, no MCP supporter was involved but we have seen an intruder who did that thing which is a very bad thing and we condemn it” he said.
However, Chimwendo has called on police to act quickly on the matter.
