By SIMON MUNTEMBA and ADRIAN MWANZA
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema should be wary of members of a vengeful and vindictive cabal that persecuted his predecessor but were now reportedly on the verge of gaining constitutional office through back room consent order deals.
Their ambition was high office through a well planned conspiracy, Pastor Peter Chanda has said.
And PF Information and Publicity chairperson Raphael Nakacinda said that the cartel that coerced the late President Levy Mwanawasa to persecute Dr Frederick Chiluba had returned and were pushing the new dawn Government to set up a fast track court aimed at discrediting the former ruling party.
In an interview, Pastor Chanda cautioned the President to be wary of the cartel which was still in existence and was determined to infiltrate his administration.
He said the cartel that almost hijacked the leadership of the Patriotic Front (PF) soon after the death of President Michael Sata have now regrouped and determined to capture the State by aligning themselves to President Hichilema.
“As NCP, we would like to advise the republican President, Mr Hakainde Hichilema to be wary of the people that are regrouping and bringing themselves closer to him. He should be careful with them because they have selfish interest.
“Yes, he is a man of the moment and is being celebrated but he should be careful with some of the people trying to get close to him with evil intentions. I don’t want to mention names but the cartel have regrouped,” Mr Chanda said.
Mr Chanda said President Hichilema should also not allow back door deals which might weaken his Government.
Meanwhile, Mr Nakacinda said the Cartel that pressurised Dr Mwanawasa to set up a task force against corruption has resurfaced and pushing President Hichilema to set up the new fast track courts to persecute political opponents.
Mr Nakacinda said that it was shocking that a witch hunt had started with people being sent to countries like Eswatini and Belgium to sniff out possible properties former president Edgar Lungu had.
He said that this was a witch hunt and that the country spent a lot of money investigating former presidents Kenneth Kaunda and Chiluba only to discover that they did not have anything in their coffers.
‘’It’s a shame that the country lost millions in trying to persecute Dr Chiluba due to political reasons because there was a cartel that was controlling president Mwanawasa and now they want to control the new president,’’ he said.
