By Oliver Chisenga
GIVEN Lubinda signed an MOU with a Chinese entity at the time he was minister of agriculture, then days later $50,000 was wired to his account by the same entity, a source has revealed.
The source warned the acting PF president, Lubinda, against misleading the nation and his
supporters with claims that his company got a loan from another company.
But Lubinda said, “The money that is being spoken about was actually transferred to my account in 2018. I became minister of justice in 2016 as you remember. How careless can one be to receive proceeds of crime through an
account in Zambia?”
On Monday upon being warned and cautioned by the Anti-Corruption Commission on allegations of corruption, Lubinda said he was surprised that the entire State machinery was investigating him on a matter his company borrowed money from another company.
“I wonder when it became an offence for a director of a company to borrow money from another company. I wonder when this became a
corrupt matter. I was thinking that they will tell me whether when I was minister of agriculture I may have sold fertiliser which was for the State or that I awarded a contract dubiously.
They invite me here to come and tell me that ‘in 2016 you entered into a loan agreement with a Chinese company and that Chinese company gave you a loan’. I am yet to go to court to go and hear when obtaining a loan became an offence,” said Lubinda.
“The one thing I would like to say and say it very clearly is that the investigating officer said to me that ‘I have instructions that this matter must end. I have to go to my supervisors’. We know why institutions, investigative wings, of government were transferred from being independent to be put at State House. We know. So we know that the supervisor is no other than the occupant at State House [the President].”
But a source close to the matter clarified that Lubinda, as agriculture minister signed an memorandum of understanding with
a Chinese entity to enhance agriculture development in Zambia and a few days later “this same Chinese body ‘lent’ him money”.
“What sort of loan is that? He signed an MoU as minister of agriculture on behalf of government and a few days later they wired him $50k [US $50,000] but now he claims it was a loan,” wondered the source.
When contacted over the revelations that he
received a bribe, Lubinda said there will be a lot of fiction and a lot of stories created to try and dent the image of the members of PF.
“When the Anti-Corruption Commission tried to do an indictment, in their indictment they will not mention anything with me signing any
kind of MoU or if I had any transaction to do with the government of Zambia,” he said.
“The documents that Anti-Corruption Commission showed me yesterday (Monday), the documents which they showed my legal team yesterday are in respect of a loan agreement between my company and a Chinese company. So whoever is spreading that information that an MoU was entered into as minister of agriculture must check their facts.”
Lubinda said the issues being talked about are transactions that occurred when he was no longer minister of agriculture but was at Ministry of Justice.
“I would just like to allay the fears of citizens about all these innuendos and I know that all those pursuing me and all people in PF will not stop at anything. They will continue to bring whatever issues just to create an impression. Obviously all those that want to see the
downfall of PF were shocked when I revealed the way I was called by ACC and think of it, if it was something to do with an MoU between the
Zambian government through the Ministry of Agriculture why would my daughter be called?” he asked.
“What did my daughter have to do with it? My daughter is being brought into this because the matter these people are bringing up are to do with family property and that property is
our company?”
Lubinda added that there is no relationship between the rumour that is being created and the reason he was called by the ACC.
He said those who want to create an impression that there was wrongdoing would try to add to the narrative.
“The money that is being spoken about was actually transferred to my account in 2018. I became minister of justice in 2016 as you remember. How careless can one be to receive proceeds of crime through an
account in Zambia? I would have preferred the money is sent to me through an off show account isn’t it, like all criminals do?” said Lubinda.