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United Party for National Development (UPND) official, Frank Bwalya, says he plans to sue and report Kitwe-based priest, Father Henry Tyola, to the police for alleged defamation and cyberbullying.
Tyola, an assistant priest at St Joseph Catholic Church in Bulangililo, is alleged to have made comments on Facebook suggesting that Bwalya suffered from hereditary mental illness and was a compromised former priest, according to Bwalya.
Speaking during a media briefing at Road View Hotel in Kitwe on Thursday, Bwalya said the alleged attacks on his character and reputation, which also affected his family, were unwarranted and warranted legal action.
Bwalya said he was pursuing the matter in his personal capacity and denied using his position as Director General of the Presidential Media Team to attack the Catholic Church.
“I am doing this briefing on my personal capacity and not as a United Party for National Development (UPND) figure because the demeaning and insulting words were directed at me and family, this matter needed to be settled in the courts of law,” he said.
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Bwalya said the priest had allegedly been publishing defamatory and cyberbullying material, including claims that he suffered from generational mental illness.
He said the alleged posts had caused distress to both him and his family, adding that he wanted to end the attacks by reporting the matter to the police and pursuing legal action for cyberbullying and defamation of character.
Bwalya said his personal reputation was at stake, despite concerns that the dispute could be perceived as pitting the Catholic Church against the ruling UPND, of which he is a senior figure.
“I have a family and personal reputation to protect, hence the reason I have made this difficult decision to sue and report the young priest to the police,” he said.
However, Father Tyola maintained in a later interview that he had never mentioned Bwalya by name in any of his posts.
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