UPND president Hakainde Hichilema says while prayer is paramount in people’s lives, it is mere “camouflage” for some politicians to gather to pray while superintending over a cruel government.

And Hichilema has observed that the sustained prevalence of nolle prosequis stems from the unprofessional conduct of the police in arresting innocent citizens.

Meanwhile, party vice-president Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba says the UPND will go ahead and start mobilising the party’s structures around the country.

Commenting on the day of prayer that falls tomorrow, October 18, Hichilema said he had a long-held sacrosanct view about Christianity and prayer but was quick to indicate that the Word of God needed no abuse, especially by politicians.

“The issue for us, to start with, is that we are Christians and not Christians of yesterday, not Christians for convenience. We believe in prayer but prayer must be genuine, prayer must be backed by action, by deed [because] word without deed is deception. But what we have seen in our country is abuse of our beloved Christianity. It is common knowledge that politicians are in the forefront of this abuse of Christianity. We believe [that] what is going on is camouflage. Prayer must be based on the truth and it must be meaningful. Let’s be serious and let’s not abuse the Word of God!” Hichilema said in an interview in Lusaka.

“You cannot say that you are a Christian nation on one hand and on another you continue to brutalise citizens – you continue to use the police to brutalise citizens, you continue to deny citizens of Zambia their fundamental human rights, amongst the many fundamental human rights and freedoms is freedom of conscious, freedom of assembly so that people like us can mobilise our members. Only PF are allowed to have meetings. You cannot then continue to say you are Christian nation because you are being deceptive.”

He reiterated that the UPND would not sit by and let the freedoms and rights of its members abused by those in the government.

“We cannot be denied our basic rights and freedoms. There is no sleeping, there is no dormancy at all [but] what is there is for the police to conduct themselves professionally. Nobody should take away our rights and certainly, if somebody tries to take away our rights, we’ll then fight for our rights. We’ll continue reaching out to our members,” he vowed.

And Hichilema observed that most of his cases in court are politically-motivated.