Chaos erupted in the parliament on Thursday after National Assembly speaker Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila ordered Affirmative Repositioning (AR) members to leave the chamber.
The involved members are AR leader Job Amupanda, Tuhafeni Kalola and Vaino Hangula.
Kalola initially got up without permission and refused to sit when told to do so. He was later ordered to leave, but refused and had to be forcefully removed, with Amupanda and Hangula shielding him from being removed.
As the chaos escalated, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila attempted to restore order to the house.
“Order, order, order! The rest of the members should take their seats,” she said.
The session was adjourned for a break following the chaotic scene.
Affirmative Repositioning leader Job Amupanda had returned to parliament when it resumed and informed the house that Kalola has been hospitalised with a swollen hip.
He says this is a result of an assault.
Amupanda also claims some of the security members who removed Kalola are not from parliament.
“Those guys, some of them are my relatives and they are not parliamentary security as you are saying. I know them and we know where they work,” he says.
Kalola explains what triggered the situation, saying he raised a point of privilege which is allowed by the rules of parliament.
“The speaker didn’t want to give me a chance and I insisted that I should be given a chance to ask for a point of privilege,” he says.
Kalola says he refused to leave parliament when the speaker made a ruling that he should leave.
He also says the people who came to remove him from parliament are members of the intelligence community and not part of parliament security.
Body of Christ Party president Festus Thomas who was near the scene says his left foot was injured after being stepped on during a scuffle between AR members of parliament and security clusters.
“I was sitting behind Kalola. The security officials were so many, and in the process when they were pulling the gentlemen out they stepped on my left foot. I am now in pain,” he says.
Thomas questions who will pay his medical bill.
“We are a democratic country. We cannot be bullied like in the colonial times,” he says.
According to him, using force will not achieve anything.
He says Kalola did nothing wrong by asking to stand on the point of privilege as part of the standing orders.
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