By ADRIAN MWANZA
I CHALLENGE the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nelly Mutti, to explain the source of her US$22 million fortune to put speculation and suspicion to rest, Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) president, Sean Tembo, has said.
Mr Tembo said that as far as he was concerned, the only business Ms Mutti had was her law firm and that it was not possible for anyone to generate that amount of money from just that business venture.
He said he hoped the Speaker would lead by example by explaining to the public how she became “stinking rich” just from her law firm because as things stood, it was very suspicious and there was need for the investigative wings to look into the matter.
“Really, the Speaker should be given an opportunity to exculpate herself failure to do so we are going to look at other options in this case even including the investigative wings to look into her matter,” Mr Tembo said.
Meanwhile, acting PF president Given Lubinda said there was need for investigative wings to take keen interest and verify how authentic the assets declared by Ministers and Members of Parliament were.
Mr Lubinda in an interview said the recent revelations that the current speaker was worth $22mn was mind boggling and had raised a lot of eyebrows amongst stakeholders.
He said that there was need for people to ensure that the assets that were declared were indeed authentic by ensuring that people acquired the property genuinely.
Mr Lubinda said that he did not understand how the Speaker could amass such wealth but said that the investigative wings would not follow up the matter because she was in good books with the current government.
He said that the problem was that the investigative wings never bothered to look at matters or individuals from the private sector.
“Even if there was foul play this matter will not go anywhere because a case in point was my situation, when I was investigated in 2017 but the case could not proceed but only resurfaced after we lost power in 2021,” he said.
Mr Lubinda said he was once poisoned and almost lost his life for championing the declaration act as most people were not comfortable about it.
He said that the problem was that most people if asked how they amassed wealth could not explain, which made it very suspicious.
Mr Lubinda said it was not his duty to report to the Anti-Corruption Commission and other investigative wings but they just had to do it morally.
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