Lubinda should abandon being president, he is supposed to be kingmaker – Jay Banda
FUGITIVE former Petauke Member of Parliament Emmanuel Jay Banda is demanding for PF faction leader Given Lubinda to immediately abandon his presidential ambitions, warning that remaining in the race will amount to a direct betrayal of late Edgar Lungu.
The ex-Petauke Central MP accused PF figurehead, Lubinda of betraying Lungu’s trust by ditching his kingmaker role to chase the party presidency.
Banda, said Lubinda was never meant to harbour presidential ambitions but was carefully positioned by Lungu to hold the party together at its weakest moment.
The runaway former lawmaker said Lungu, while battling illness in South Africa, deliberately left Lubinda as acting president because he was assured that the veteran politician would not contest but would instead act as a neutral unifier.
According to the notorious Banda, Lubinda’s decision to now seek the PF presidency amounts to a betrayal of sacred trust, describing it as a political stab in the back delivered before his boss is even laid to rest.
Speaking during a recent interview on EMTV, Banda also recalled that Lubinda had previously refused to pay the K200,000 nomination fee demanded of aspiring candidates, insisting at the time that he had agreed to remain a kingmaker.
“Because [Lubinda] sat down with ECL and he agreed to be a kingmaker,” Banda disclosed.
“But today, in the absence of ECL, Lubinda now wants to betray the agreement which was there between him and ECL.”
He called on senior PF figures and those close to Lubinda to sit him down and remind him of the responsibility Lungu entrusted to him.
Banda insisted that if Lubinda truly loved Lungu and the PF, he should withdraw from the race and maintain the kingmaker position he was given, arguing that betrayal at this stage could permanently damage the party.
By George Musonda
Kalemba January 11, 2026