TELL US MORE …about how Lungu dubiously became PF candidate in 2015, Scott urges KBF
By Lulumbi Nakazwe
DR GUY Scott has urged Kelvin Bwalya Fube to tell Zambians more about how they dubiously made Edgar Lungu the PF presidential candidate in 2015 after Michael Sata’s death.
During a recent press briefing in Lusaka after his dismissal from the position of deputy chairperson for elections in the PF, KBF disclosed how he and a few others managed to obtain the orders they wanted from the courts after waking up a judge at 04:00am.
He also disclosed how they intimidated Dr Scott to give up the party leadership which he constitutionally held as he was the party’s vice-president at the time.
“We fought this battle, I was not a member of the central committee, I was not a member of Cabinet at that time but I chaired central committee because members of the central committee were not lawyers. They didn’t understand what was going on. Willie Nsanda was sitting on my right, ba Samuel Mukupa on my left at all times. Members who attended the central committee include a Mr. Mwale in Luapula, ba Chali in Central Province, the PS now at the Ministry of Defence Stardy Mwale, he was Copperbelt Provincial chairman at the time, ba Nkandu Luo joined us, my own minister who has dropped me now, Jean Kapata, was always on me asking ‘what time are we going to meet, what are we going to do?’” KBF recalled.
“I spent my time, effort and knowledge as a lawyer to educate central committee members who didn’t understand their own constitution so that they know they had power to go against Guy Scott…By the time we were getting to Mulungushi, we were ready. We knew the Constitution at the fingertips. We knew every clause…When we decided against all odds that we were going to expel Guy Scott from the party, ba Chali read the statement, signed by all central committee members because then they realized they had power to do that. We went to Cool Breeze Lodge and Guy Scott was dropped. It was that pressure that forced Guy Scott to come back and say ‘okay let’s agree’…We came back from Mulungushi, the President’s candidature was secured at the time. They ran back to Lusaka, me and my security detail decided we were tired…let’s rest. We wanted to sleep in Kabwe after the convention. At exactly 20:21 hours, I received a phone call from Kaizar Zulu, ‘Counsel, where are you. We have landed at Lewanika, the president wants you here.’ I was like ‘what is the problem?’ He said ‘emergency.’ We didn’t sleep; we drove like mad. One and a half hours, we were at Lewanika. The President called a meeting and he said ‘These guys are going ahead with their convention tomorrow, we have just had a convention, and we need an injunction’.”
He said he had sacrificed a lot for the party for anyone to expect him to leave.
“Myself, the legal advisor to the President, Tutwa Ngulube, and my young brother Bokani Soko…from Mulungushi, I didn’t go home…We worked the whole night, we had no secretaries. We were doing one little finger at a time. We are men but at least we can type. By 02:00 hours, the papers were ready. We had to start calling people to open the High Court. We opened the High Court at 03:00 hours and we rushed there. People were leaving their wives and children to open the High Court. We had to find the judge,” narrated KBF.
“We found ourselves knocking on the door of the judge at 04:00 hours in the morning. By 05:00 hours, the judge had read and signed the documents. At exactly 10 minutes to 06:00 hours, I was delivering the injunction to the President at his home. The President then said, ‘This injunction has to reach Mulungushi so that we stop the convention.’”
Dr Scott, in his reaction, said it was interesting to learn that President Lungu’s team was ‘crawling’ in the judges’ offices at 04:00am to stop a legitimate convention.
“It’s fascinating to know that President Lungu’s team was crawling in judge’s offices at 04:00 hours in the morning trying to serve injunctions on me, which he couldn’t do because I was the acting President. You don’t serve an injunction on the President. KBF said his colleague who was the commissioner for the second convention promised him that he was going to count the votes but not declare the winner, but he announced them at the convention. The winner was Miles Sampa,” Dr Scott said.
“Miles Sampa won because he did his homework and he had supporters who were there and voted for him when others ran away after that bogus convention which Edgar Lungu was declared winner. I had to remind the Chief Justice that we had two conventions and that she did not just expect us to sort it out. Otherwise, we would have had two nominees from PF and we would have had bloodshed probably. Miles tried to get an injunction to have him declared winner but that did not work and we had consent order.”
He said he would ask KBF to orient him on how to get judges to sign injuctions at 04:00am.
“It’s so nice to hear about the crawling around in the night like burglars. If they looked a little bit like burglars, maybe that’s because that’s how they spend their nights. I will ask Fube to show me how he went about it, he should tell us more. I will even ask him to give me the addresses for the judges so that the day I will need help, I will just go and knock on one of the judge’s door at 04:00 hours,” Dr Scott said.
And Dr Scott said the PF now belonged to the MMD.
He said what was happening in the PF was not shocking to him.
“Everything happening in the PF is entirely predictable. You take the PF remnants if you like, the PF core of that party, even me I came from Mpika and I campaigned the whole Copperbelt. But for some reason, he (President Lungu) wants to give each of Rupiah Banda’s loyal subjects positions. And if you remember, they were defeated by us (PF), now they are senior to us! We have Bowman Lusambo – MMD die-hard – boasting that he is PF! That is the party we defeated because we felt it was too corrupt and people wanted change. We have got them back. So it’s entirely predictable,” Dr Scott said.
Asked how he felt about the happenings in the PF, he said: “I don’t think there is anything surprising about what is happening in the PF. But again I am just observing. I think it’s fine. Let’s wait and see what happens. Politics, they say, there are two certainties in life; one is thanks and the other is ingratitude. That’s how I feel. It’s true. Ingratitude is inevitable. I am not worried. You want me to start sulking or crying? I did what I intended to do. People were even jealous when I was made deputy President, I was president for three months. I have even put the picture on the wall, chapwa (finished).”