PF CAUTIONED OVER DOOMSAYERS

DOOMSAYERS want to create confusion in the PF by claiming that Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya is using the current Covid-19 situation to promote his presidential ambitions yet they have no evidence to show, ZRP president Wright Musoma has said. Speaking to the Daily Nation, Mr. Musoma said there had been a lot of rumour-mongering claiming that Dr. Chilufya was using the pandemic as a cash cow to raise funds for his presidential campaigns but warned that such must not be tolerated. Mr. Musoma said the PF must be very careful not to get carried away by such innuendos and start fighting among themselves because that could be a ploy by the opposition to create dissent within the organisation so that it goes into the 2021 elections as a fragmented party. He said it was sad that some people within the PF were falling for these lies to the point of beginning to question Covid-19 cases where each time the number increased, they accused the Ministry of Health of purposefully lying to the nation that the situation was getting out of hand so that more money could be sourced from donors. He said Dr. Chilufya was one of the hard working ministers and that he demonstrated this long before he was accused of harbouring presidential ambitions during the previous cholera outbreaks as he was always at the forefront. “The PF must be very careful not to fall for tricks which will bring confusion in the party. At the rate we are going, the PF members may start fighting one another over dissent created by people from within and outside the party and they must guard against this because we all know that Dr. Chilufya is hard working. “If every minister who tries to make a difference in their ministry is going to be accused of having presidential ambitions, then ministers will fear to work. People like Ronald Chitotela, Stephen Kampyongo, and Bowman Lusambo have all been accused of harbouring presidential ambitions and this is only destabilising the PF,” Mr. Musoma said. He said the issue of the PF presidential candidate for 2021elections had already been concluded and wondered why people were fighting over a matter which the leadership had already provided guidance. “We all know that the PF already has a presidential candidate in President Edgar Lungu and so, this matter is settled. We are just wondering why people want to fight each other by making accusations which do not benefit the party,” Mr. Musoma said.