LUNGU WILL TESTIFY THAT HE OWNS HIS CHILDREN’S PROPERTIES IN COURT, INSISTS FORMER PF SG MWILA
FORMER PF secretary general Davies Mwila says former president Edgar Lungu will testify that he owns the properties which his children possess.
In an interview, Mwila insisted that Dalitso cannot get his wealth from anywhere else besides his father.
“I say it again, where can Dalisto get the money from? People have to use their common sense that the money came from the father. Of course, he [Lungu] will be a witness that this is my money. I gave my money to my children. What are they going to do? Explain what? There are too many people who are richer than Lungu here in Zambia and people don’t talk about it. How old is Lungu? 66, 67 years.
How many years has he worked? More than 40 years. He has been a lawyer, he was working for ZCCM, he became an MP, he became a minister and he became a president. They don’t know that presidents get gifts from other presidents? Even in monetary form?” Mwila asked.
Mwila charged that President Hakainde Hichilema was not complying with the declaration of assets law.
“So the only thing the President can do is to declare the assets. People won’t know how much money he had when he entered into State House. When you’re MP or minister, you declare assets every year so that in future when they ask, they will be able to trace how you were moving in terms of wealth. As at now, no one knows.
The President is supposed to be declaring every year. It’s not once. So he was supposed to declare last year in January and this year, he is supposed to declare, until he leaves office. That’s what we used to do when we were members of parliament. We used to declare every year. So if you go to the Office of the Chief Justice, you will find all the documentation,” he said.
Meanwhile, commenting on Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) acting director General Liya Tembo’s statement that freezing accounts is vital because without that, criminals will continue enjoying their lives even after serving jail time, Mwila said grabbing people’s property without understanding how they acquired it was unfair.
“If they know, they just have to go in and do whatever they want to do. Why should they start bringing the matters in public? They are not serious. They’ve been in government for two years. Why is it that they’ve not grabbed those properties if they’ve been stolen? We’ve been talking about the same things for two years. We have other things to do and we have to develop this country. This country has to change. If people have stolen, why can’t you arrest them and get their property?
You can see that they are not serious. And this thing of grabbing property without asking how someone acquired the wealth, it’s not good. That’s being unfair and it’s abuse of the law. If someone has property, you have to ask how they acquired it before grabbing the property so that he explains. But they are just grabbing property anyhow. They’ll find you with a bicycle and they will grab it, saying it is property suspected to be proceeds of crime. That’s abuse of the law,” he said.
“Those who’ve stolen can be crippled but how many times are they going to talk about these things? There must be justification if they want to grab property; someone should have stolen something. This is a country of laws. I am not saying that criminals must be left free. Those who’ve stolen must be investigated and if they discover that property was bought using stolen money, that’s when they seize. But it’s been two years and they don’t have anything else to do”.
Meanwhile, commenting on Tembo’s statement that there should be a limit to which individuals can engage in cash transactions in order to curb financial crimes in the country, Mwila said it’s up to government to change laws.
“That’s the responsibility of government, to bring up those laws. If they think that the current law is not helping the country, they should change. But if they just continue talking, people will be saying these are just talkative liars. Let them bring those laws. But they should know that the same laws that they are bringing, they’ll catch up with them. Those guys are enjoying the privileges of being in government but once they leave government, they will see how the law works,” said Mwila
(Credit: News Diggers)