By SIMON MUNTEMBA
IT is not true that I want to be Socialist Party candidate, I resigned purely on principle because I did not want to be used as a rubber stamp by a clique of senior PF officials who wanted to use underhand methods in the adoption process, former PF Kabwata constituency chairperson Trevor Ng’andu has said.
Mr Ng’andu, on Saturday, resigned as Kabwata PF constituency chairman as well as national elections committee member and Lusaka mobilisation deputy media coordinator, to protest against alleged attempts by senior party members to sneak in a candidate who did not apply for adoption at the last minute.
Mr Ng’andu however disclosed that several political parties had approached him to join them but he was not ready to do that because his conscience could not allow him.
In an interview, Mr N’gandu said contrary to insinuations that he wanted to join the Socialist Party, he resigned because he did not want to be used as a scapegoat by a clique of PF officials who wanted to sneak in a candidate who did not apply for adoption.
“If people are saying I resigned because I want to join the Socialist Party, why didn’t I resign before this fight? Everything pointing to this fight is that I will not allow myself to be used as a rubber stamp. I have a family and a reputation to protect.
“From the time that I started my politics, I have never involved myself in issues that are corrupt. I have tried to be clean as much as I can, which is very difficult when you are in politics. Because I have integrity to maintain, so I decided to take that path,” Mr N’gandu said.
He also claimed that one senior PF official called him and instructed that a certain candidate be interviewed and included on the list even if he never applied before the deadline.
“The deadline was Friday, December 17 by latest 17: 00 hours, and for me as constituency chairman I had to follow the rules. The whole night of Friday, the person they were pushing for never communicated and when we were done with interviewing the four that had applied, around 12:00 hours on Saturday, I received a call from one of the senior members who said ‘allow (him)’ to come for interviews and put him on the list of aspiring candidates, and I am not going to do something outside morality. I said, if that is the case, take him directly to the central committee to interview him, and don’t use me as a rubber stamp.
“I told him that people are not going to say anything about you who has given the instruction. They don’t know you, you are behind the tinted windows, they are looking at me right now and they are going to the press and say the constituency chairman has allowed a candidate who did not apply. That is where the differences started from with some of my senior party members,” Mr N’gandu narrated.
He added, “Now after I have taken this bold decision to resign, they want to accuse me of wanting to be Socialist Party candidate, that is not true. Of course, I have been approached by different political parties including UPND, Harry Kalaba’s DP, Socialist Party and even within PF some members approached me to consider standing for Kabwata Parliamentary seat but I haven’t taken that stance.”
Mr Ng’andu said he was ready to expose a clique of senior PF officials who wanted to use him as a rubber stamp in the adoption process to the party Central Committee once summoned.
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