By OLIVER SAMBOKO
STEVEN Katuka should produce evidence that the Patriotic Front (PF) tried to bribe him to dump UPND, failure to do so will prove that he is a very dull and deceitful person who should not be trusted by Zambians, PF deputy media director Antonio Mwanza has said.
Mr Katuka, he said, was a spent force not adding any value to his own party and wondered how and why the ruling party would want him to join them.
“Actually the people in his own party want him out because of his failed leadership, so his claims are not only laughable but a blue lie that must be ignored by Zambians,” Mr Mwanza said.
Speaking when he addressed a Lusaka Province women’s wing conference at the UPND secretariat on Wednesday, Mr Katuka said the PF has been trying to lure him with K3 million, a house and lucrative job for him to dump the opposition party.
He claimed that the enormous temptations he has had to endure at the hands of the PF who offered him endless lucrative deals, including the offers of a house, car, free fuel and job by President Edgar Lungu spelt the corrupt ends to which the PF were willing to go in buying off opposition figures.
Mr Katuka said he refused to accept the PF offers because his goal is to ensure that UPND forms the next government this year.
Mr Katuka said his ability to refuse the enticement from the PF was evident enough that the opposition party under his care was in the right hands.
But Mr Mwanza said, Mr Katuka was of no use to any political party, least of all, the PF. “Surely, what political value or influence does Stephen Katuka has for anyone to waste their time and money persuading him to join PF?
Ba Katuka is politically irrelevant. He is dead wood. In fact even ba UPND themselves are failing to understand why he of all people was given that position; they are at pains to understand why Hakainde Hichilema is still keeping him as the party’s Secretary General because to be fair, the man is just excess baggage, he is not adding any value to the organisation,” Mr Mwanza said.
