THE 17 civil society organisations (CSOs) yesterday announced that they had called off their planned demonstrations but they could not immediately reveal reasons for the cancellation.

And police said they could not allow the CSOs to demonstrate because the matter is before the courts of law.

Copperbelt police chief, Antoneill Mutentwa said in Ndola yesterday that it would be contempt to let the demonstrations go ahead because some interested parties had taken the matter to the High Court for judicial review.

"We have not allowed them to go ahead with the demonstration because there is a court case. This can be contempt of court, so until that is disposed of, the demonstrations cannot be allowed to take off," he said.

Mr Mutentwa said the CSOs had written to the police informing them that they wanted to hold a demonstration in Kitwe today.

He said he informed them that it would not be in order for them to go ahead considering that the matter was in court.

And deputy spokesperson of the CSOs, Frank Bwalya said in an interview yesterday that they decided to cancel the demonstrations set for today because of some considerations.

Father Bwalya said they had decided not to go ahead with today's demonstration and that the stakeholders would hold an emergency meeting to discuss the way forward.

"We have decided to hold on to the demonstration demanding that the Government appeals against the acquittal against Dr Chiluba because of certain considerations," he said.

Fr Bwalya, who could not state what the considerations for the cancellations were, said it was not because the police had written to them suggesting that they call off the demonstration.

He said the police wrote to them on the issue but that the alliance could not do as the police said because the police were highly compromised on the issue.

In Solwezi, the demonstration called by the alliance of 17 CSOs to protest against Dr Chiluba's acquittal failed to take off.

North-Western Province police chief, Fabian Katiba said the demonstration could not go ahead as the command had information that the matter was before the courts of law.

Mr Katiba said it would have been contempt of court to allow the CSOs to go ahead with the protest when the matter was before the courts of law.

But Caritas Solwezi diocese coordinator, Frederick Nabanda said the demonstration would go ahead next Wednesday after police advised it could not take place yesterday due to security reasons.