FORMER Eastern Province NDC chairperson Samuel Lugomo-Phiri says the people in the province do not elect on tribal lines but that this time around they should be forgiven because they are solidly behind President Edgar Lungu.
Phiri claims his defection to the ruling PF has shaken the entire province adding that NDC leader Chishimba Kambwili ‘suffered a stroke’ as a result of his defection.
During a meeting in Mambwe, Phiri said Easterners were not tribal. “Musakambe chabe koma aliko osankha mitundu, baliko oonekela poyera, ife kwathu sitisankha mtundu koma ulendo uno mwinangu batikhululukire bena ndaba tizakhala pambuyo pa President Edgar Chagwa Lungu mwathunthu, sitinjenjemela (don’t just talk, there are people who choose on tribal lines, they do that openly, here, we don’t choose on tribal lines but this time around, others should forgive us because we are going to be solidly behind President Lungu, we are not shaken),” Phiri boasted.
“We are prepared and the entire province has shaken, Kambwili when he left the Nc’wala ceremony going to Lusaka, he suffered a serious stroke. Nikathupi chabe kano koma muziba zintchito zake za straight osati zau mambala (It’s just a small body but you know my works – straight ones and not crooked ones).”
Phiri said he was wasting time in the opposition NDC but that now he had gone back to the group of his relatives in PF.
He said he would move from district to district to help strengthen the PF.
Phiri said easterners were not tribal.
“Basazitinena kuti tisankha mitundu, aliko bena asankha mitundu ise sitisankha mitundu koma ise tionese umodzi wakuno kum’mawa, ulendo uno 95, 96 per cent Edgar Chagwa Lungu (They should not be accusing us of being tribal. There are others who are tribal, we don’t choose on tribal lines but this time we should show the oneness of the east, and this time around 95, 96 per cent should be given to Edgar Chagwa Lungu),” he said.
Phiri was expelled from the NDC a day before he announced his joining the PF. Before joining NDC, Phiri was in MMD and worked with the ruling PF.