Former Zambian president, Edgar Lungu has filed a High Court application in Lusaka challenging the neighbouring country’s authorities for denying him permission to fly out to South Korea to attend a world peace conference.
Lungu was reportedly ejected from a plane on Saturday and stopped from travelling to the East Asian country.
Zambian authorities said the former president was stopped because he did not get clearance from Cabinet.
Lungu was scheduled to fly out to South Korea via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia but received a rude shock when a protocol officer approached him and his wife, Esther Lungu, to inform them that the trip had been cancelled.
Zambian opposition Patriotic Front (PF) national chairperson for information and publicity, Emmanuel Mwamba, told the media that Lungu was literally ejected from the plane after being cleared and issued with a boarding pass.
“They were cleared properly, and bags were checked in. Boarding passes were issued, but afterwards there was an uncomfortable delay,” Mwamba was quoted saying.
“Shortly, a protocol officer approached President Lungu and told him the trip had been cancelled.”
Lungu has since turned to the courts for redress.
He cited Zambia’s Attorney General as the respondent in the matter.
Lungu is seeking an order of certiorari to quash the decision of the Director General of Zambia Department of Immigration to deny him exit out of Zambia into South Korea.
He also wants an order to stay the decision of the Director General of Immigration, refund of the cost of the air tickets.
His application will be heard this Monday in Lusaka by High Court judge Charles Zulu.
Lungu is Zambia’s sixth republican president since the country attained independence in 1964.
He left office in August 2021 after he was outpolled in the southern African country’s election by Hakainde Hichilema, the Zambia incumbent.