United Party for National Development (UPND) Lusaka Province Chairperson, Obvious Mwaliteta has said that his will petition the nomination of Edgar Lungu and file for an injunction to prevent him from filing in his presidential nomination papers for disregarding the August 8, 2016 ConCourt order for 63 former and current ministers to pay back the salaries and allowances they illegally accrued when they remained in office after Parliament was dissolved.
In an interview with the Party’s media team yesterday, Mr.Mwaliteta said that President Lungu was expected to uphold the Constitution and that failure to do so led to ministers undermining and aggregating its provisions.
“We are demanding for the Republican President, Edgar Chagwa Lungu to resign. He should resign because he has abrogated the Constitution of Zambia. The presidency is there to protect the Constitution but here is a President who abrogated the Constitution by allowing ministers to stay in office when they were not supposed to. And, if he is not going to resign, we will petition his nominations next year,” he said.
Mr.Mwaliteta said that it’s laughable that the head of State, who is a pronounced legal practitioner could suddenly u-turn and order his ministers to pay back in excess of K4.2 million contrary to his earlier guidance.
“This is a president who allowed ministers not to pay back allowances and salaries illegally accrued when they stayed in office and later u-turned and told them to pay back,” he said.