Lungu’s aides summoned over leaked President’s speech

A NUMBER of senior officials at State House including presidential aides and some senior officials at Cabinet Office have been summoned by the police over the leaking of President Edgar Lungu’s speech to the 5th session of the 11th National Assembly.
The senior State House officials who including those from Cabinet Office have been summoned and would today appear at Woodlands police station for questioning over the leaking of the Presidential speech to the Post newspaper before President Lungu could deliver it to Parliament.
According to sources from both State House and Cabinet Office, the callouts to the affected officials were delivered on Saturday and that all those who have been summoned are expected to report to the police today at 09:00 hours.
President Lungu’s speech to the 5th session of the 11th National Assembly was leaked to the Post newspaper and was published before the Head of State could deliver it to Parliament.
The sources said following the leaking of the President’s speech and its publication in the Post newspaper, investigations had commenced at State House and had been extended to Cabinet Office where a number of senior civil servants had since been summoned by the police.

“A number of State House senior officials including presidential aides and some senior civil servants at Cabinet Office have been summoned by the police to help with investigations to the leaking of President Edgar Lungu’s speech to the 5th session of the 11th National Assembly. The police will be questioning all the people who handled the speech of the President to establish how the document was delivered to the Post newspaper before the Head of State could deliver it to Parliament. The investigations have in fact been extended to Cabinet Office,” the source said.
The source said there had been too many leaks of classified Government documents and in some cases outright stealing of State secrets and taking it to the media and that State House was working to seal all the security gaps.
State House has described the leaking of the speech as criminal and ordered that criminal investigations should immediately be commenced.
Special assistant to the President for press and public relations Amos Chanda told the Daily Nation that President Lungu’s speech was a classified document until after delivery and that those who had access to the document before it was delivered had committed a criminal offence.
State House permanent secretary Emmanuel Chilubanama told the Daily Nation on Thursday that investigations into the leaking of President Lungu’s speech had reached advanced state and that the probe was going to include some State House officials.