Police raid Zambian opposition leader's house arresting 28 people

Zambian police has raided an opposition party leader’s house on Wednesday during which it arrested 28 members of the party.

Three weeks to the country’s presidential election, the Vice President of the United Party for National Development (UPND), Geoffrey Mwamba said on Facebook that the police “raided and fired tear gas in his home” in Kasama (north), where his wife, children and grandchildren lived.

The police later announced that they had arrested 28 supporters of UPND for destruction of posters of President Edgar Lungu and holding machetes and catapults.

“The police tried to prevent them from tearing the posters but they found refuge in the home of Mr. Mwamba,” the police commissioner of the area, Bonny Kapeso, told AFP.

“When police followed them to the house, they started throwing stones at us,” he added, justifying the raid.

The president of the UPND Hakainde Hichilema is the main rival of President Lungu during the August 11 presidential elections.