Stop maligning ECL, Kabimba tells HH

By NATION REPORTER

PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema should be sincere and stop maligning his predecessor by claiming that he refused to hand over power when President Rupiah Banda proved that former President Edgar Lungu never resisted to accept defeat, Economic Front president Wynter Kabimba has said.

Mr Kabimba said when issues of refusing to hand over power came out he spoke to former president Lungu, who said he had no intention of refusing to hand over power and his statement was collaborated with President Banda before he passed on.

He said President Hakainde Hichilema had a tendency and propensity of prejudicing his predecessor and building a groundswell of hate against Mr. Lungu in the eyes of the people.

“I spoke to Edgar and he gave me his version of the story of what transpired in that meeting and I met the late president Banda before he died and his version of the story confirmed that there was no resistance to hand over power.”

“President Hichilema lies through his teeth on the public podium.  The only person I never spoke to who was in that meeting was the former President of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete but the rest confirmed that the issue of resistance was neither here nor there,” Mr Kabimba said.

Mr Kabimba said if Mr Lungu did anything wrong, President Hichilema should let the due process of the law take its course than vilifying the former head of State at every for a.

“Am not a defender of Lungu but a defender of justice. I hate the injustice being inflicted on former President Lungu,” he said.

He said Mr Lungu has no intention of coming back to lead this country and Mr Hichilema should not feel intimidated about him making public appearances.

Mr Kabimba said Mr Lungu had every right to live in this country and enjoy all the privileges like any other citizen and those rights were not conferred on him by the UPND government but by the constitution of Zambia.

He said Mr Lungu had a right to go and worship wherever he wanted and the congregations where he went to worship reserved the right to ask him to say something as a citizen and that should not intimidate the UPND.

Mr Kabimba said President Hichilema was trying to divert attention of the people from the failure of the UPND by bringing in Mr Lungu.