Be wary of UPND ploy, PF warned

THE PF must be wary of manoeuvres by the UPND to portray Vice President Inonge Wina as an accomplice in its impeachment ploy of President Lungu, the Zambian DNA has warned.

The DNA said these manoeuvres, if not carefully handled, could create dissent, disunity, and lack of trust within the rank and file of the party even when the Vice President was innocent.

The Zambian DNA spokesperson Spuki Mulemwa yesterday told the Daily Nation that the UPND had embarked on a dangerous divide-and-rule campaign aimed at not only plunging the PF into disarray, but also to bring discontentment among those in power, especially between President Edgar Lungu and Ms. Wina.

Mr. Mulemwa said without treading softly on the matter repeatedly insinuated by the UPND, PF members may be incited to rise against one another thereby creating a void which will allow the UPND to fight from all fronts.

The idea, he said, was to create confusion from all fronts using avenues such as the impeachment process, President Lungu’s citizenship, the 2016 election petition purportedly before the courts, and purposefully messing up the dialogue process so that the PF will be overwhelmed and then instigate intra-party suspicion.

Mr. Mulemwa said Ms. Wina’s name was now being used as a scapegoat to bring tension in the ruling party using the loophole provided in the Constitution where she becomes president in an event that their impeachment process was successful.

“The insinuations that Ms. Wina is an interested party in the ill-conceived and frivolous impeachment motion by the UPND are not only baseless, unfounded but highly malicious and must be dismissed and condemned with the contempt they deserve.

“We all know that the Vice President is loyal to the President, the party and the nation. She has demonstrated this loyalty time and again through thick and thin.

“We urge the people of this country not to buy into these insinuations as Ms. Wina is a person of integrity and above UPND’s mediocrity and selfish agenda to unseat President Lungu,” Mr. Mulemwa said.