Plot to oust PF leadership unearthed

Sat, 04 Feb 2017 10:29:59 +0000

A PLOT in which clandestine meetings have been held over the past few weeks to plot rebellion within the ruling Patriotic Front party to oust the current party leadership has been unearthed in Luanshya.

The well-funded scheme has been revealed where PF loyalists have been targeted  to sow a seed of discord in the party to heighten calls for a convention  had been revealed by an insider who was until recently was privy to the operations of team.

And police in Luanshya yesterday recorded a warn and caution statement from Roan Member of Parliament Chishimba Kambwili’s right hand man Christopher Mutale for allegedly threatening to “bring down the Government” and violence against former PF councillor Gershom Mpundu.

Sources within the PF told the Daily Nation yesterday that Mr. Kambwili’s former campaign manager, Felix Matobwe, who has fallen out of favour with the Roan parliamentarian, was the one who has unearthed the plot to remove the current PF party leadership.

According to the sources, the plotters claimed that the PF government has failed Zambians and that there was need for a new leadership that will rekindle the Michael Sata spirit of servant leadership as the current crop had allegedly drifted from the PF ideology, hence the need for their removal.

Mr. Matobwe is said to have warned PF leaders on the Copperbelt of an impending, well-orchestrated rebellion which will start from Luanshya and spread to other parts of the country, whose aim, among other things, was to push for a convention in which new leaders should be ushered into office as the mandate for the current leadership had allegedly expired. Sources revealed that Mr. Matobwe and Mr. Kambwili differed soon after the MP’s disciplinary case which saw him remove Mr. Matobwe from the list of people who were to testify in the witchcraft case against Luanshya mayor Nathan Chanda.

Mr. Matobwe is then said to have gone back to the party to alert the leadership of the dark corner meetings that some people were holding in readiness for a ‘‘revolution movement’’ which was well-funded.

“Mr. Matobwe has explained everything to the party. We have been warned that there is a well-funded group that has been meeting at a named place in Luanshya to strategize on how to take over the leadership of the party using people who are loyal to the party.

“We have been briefed that huge sums of money have been set aside for that project and that we should be careful with people who are close to the leadership of the party as they are the prime targets in bringing down the current Government by breeding confusion,” the source said.

Efforts to get a comment from Mr. Matobwe proved futile as his mobile phone was switched off.

Meanwhile, Copperbelt police commissioner Charity Katanga and sources within PF told the Daily Nation that Mr. Mutale was yesterday summoned to Mpatamatu police station and a warn and caution statement obtained from him for his threats against Mr. Mpundu.

“Police in Mpatamatu recorded a warn and caution statement today from Mr. Mutale of house no. 86/4 Roan township in an inquiry file that was opened against a report made by Mr. Mpundu of house no. 332/21, Mpatamatu, a former PF councillor, who reported him of threatening violence, a case which occurred on 14th January, 2017, at Mpatamatu market in Luanshya,” Ms. Katanga said.