Nkombo chickened out of challenging HH, insists UPND official
GARY Nkombo chickened out of his plans to challenge Hakainde Hichilema for party presidency after realising that he did not have any backing and his intentions were exposed before being executed, a UPND official has said.
Mr Musangu Njamba, the former UPND Western province chairperson also said the party should not impose leaders on party members at the national conference like the case was in Western province if it was to win the August general elections.
Efforts to get Mr Nkombo proved futile as his phone went unanswered.
He said Mr Nkombo, who is Mazabuka Central Member of Parliament was among leaders who were secretly campaigning for the highest position in the party but decided to retreat after their schemes were exposed.
“It’s like exposing a thief
attempting to steal, obviously he or she will not go ahead with plans,” Mr Njamba said.
He said that the fact that officials chickened out of challenging Mr Hichilema at the convection should not be taken as if none harbors presidential ambitions.
And Mr Njamba said the Western Province UPND party elections were a sham and should not replicate the national convention.
“The Western province elections were a sham and we do not want what happened where leaders were imposed to repeat itself at the national convention,” Mr Njamba said.
He said the provincial elections were marred with biasness.
“There are some top UPND officials that do not mean well for the party and are bent on frustrating members who have joined the party from other political parties,” Mr Njamba said.
He said some officials have since launched a scheme to oust party members from MMD and other parties.
Mr Njamba said it was unfortunate that those that got lower votes at the provincial elections were declared as winners.
“I won the elections for provincial Chairperson but they decided to declare the losers as winners just because I am from MMD and Mbunda,” Mr Njamba said.