By Peter Sukwa
FORMER NDC national chairperson Richard Luonde says it is not wrong for him to have left the opposition party and joined the ruling UPND.
Prior to the August 12, 2021 elections, the NDC was a member of the UPND Alliance and still remains so.
Bu when then party president Josephs Akafumba was appointed home affairs permanent secretary by President Hakainde Hichilema, the NDC leadership appointed Mwenya Musenge as interim president.
This did not go well with Fr Luonde who immediately left the party and joined the UPND.
Later, he co-opted nine other NDC leaders and together they announced an official defection to the UPND.
But Musenge described the defectors as people who had left the NDC last year.
Responding to Musenge, Fr Luonde said he refused to be led by a person he termed a stranger.
‘’Attacking innocent people who had done nothing is totally wrong. All we did was to come out of a party which was led by a well-respected person and a friend of mine, Josephs Ricky Akafumba. We worked so well with him even when he took us in the UPND Alliance,’’ he said.
‘’But when Mwenya Musenge came into the party, I opted to leave because he was a stranger. This is the man who insulted the party and literally sold us all to the PF. So, for me, handing over leadership of the NDC to Mwenya Musenge is something I could not accept.’’
Fr Luonde said he received Musenge when the latter rejoined the NDC.
‘’When Musenge was coming back to the party, our president then asked me to receive him because I was a senior member of the party, and I received him. He was coming in as an ordinary member which he himself alluded to when I received him,’’ Fr Luonde said further. ‘’So, to see the party handed over to a stranger, I could not accept it.’’
Asked if he was also annoyed with the then party president Akafumba, Fr Luonde refused vehemently.
‘’No, ba Akafumba is still my brother, we have the same political philosophy; that of fighting social injustices. We still talk and we are serving the interests of the same government, the UPND government; we’re brothers,’’ said Fr Luonde.