Tue, 23 May 2017 11:59:43 +0000
…..Nalumango confirms Mwamba in hiding
By SIMON MUNTEMBA
THE UPND vice president for administration Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba (GBM) has ‘‘strategically vanished’’ following the incarceration of Hakainde Hichilema over the Mongu presidential motorcade fracas because the police might go after him as well, says the UPND national chairperson Mutale Nalumango.
Ms. Nalumango said she was fully in charge of the party in the absence of the two top most UPND leaders – Mr Hichilema who is incarcerated and GBM whose whereabouts were unknown.
She refuted reports that the Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD) president Charles Milupi had taken over the leadership of UPND by chairing the national management committee meetings, saying Mr Milupi was just in an alliance with her party together with the MMD of Nevers Mumba and People’s Party of Mike Mulongoti.
Speaking when she featured on Muvi Television’s Assignment programme on Sunday evening, Ms Nalumango said Mr. Mwamba was not physically available to execute his duty as vice president because the State had instilled fear in him.
Ms. Nalumango disclosed that GBM had ‘‘strategically gone into hiding’’ for fear that he might be the next victim of incarceration owing to the fact that he was with the UPND leader during the Mongu presidential motorcade incident.
“He (GBM) has not run away from Zambia… He is working for the party somewhere and wherever he is I can’t tell you because I don’t often talk to him but I can confirm that he is safe and doing what he is supposed to do for the party.
“Why should we have two or three top-most leaders incarcerated? Would we want him to be incarcerated also?” Ms Nalumango wondered.
And the opposition national chairperson claimed that all those UPND top leaders that were in Mongu with Mr Hichilema during the Eagle One fracas were the target of incarceration by the State.
Asked if she was not afraid to be the next target on the list of those top UPND leadership to be arrested since she claimed the Government were after them, Ms Nalumango said she was not afraid because she was not part of the delegation in Mongu.
‘I’m not afraid and don’t think I can flee the country because they (Government) have to find a different chargefor me if they are to succeed because I was not part of Hakainde’s delegation in Mongu at the time of that motorcade issue.
“Currently what we know is that the State is targeting to incarcerate only those that were in Mongu with Hakainde during the presidential motorcade fracas,” Ms Nalumango said.
Ms. Nalumango claimed that over 1,000 UPND members were in jail for various trumped up charges by the State prior and after the 2016 general elections, a claim which the Zambia Police said was unsubstantiated.
