Was I there? Sata asks Chiluba
Was I there? Sata asks ChilubaBy Mwala Kalaluka
Tuesday May 08, 2007 [04:00]
PATRIOTIC Front (PF) president Michael Sata said he is surprised that former president Frederick Chiluba has turned to him for support over his plunder cases when he dumped him for President Mwanawasa in 2001.
Addressing a public rally at Freedom Compound grounds in Chilanga on Sunday, Sata said he was unable to render support to Chiluba in the court cases where he is alleged to have plundered state resources.
Sata explained in Bemba that this was because Chiluba had ignored his advice when he picked on President Mwanawasa as the MMD presidential candidate in the 2001 general elections.
"He (Chiluba) ignored all of us and went to wake up (President) Mwanawasa from his sleep and now he wants me to help him. Was I there?" Sata asked, as the crowd cheered him on.
He went on to say that the Bemba wise saying: 'Ifya kulya ubushiku fitulikila kumalushi (What you eat in the night comes out in the vomit in the morning) best describes the situation that President Mwanawasa and Chiluba find themselves in following revelations made by the courts in the cases relating to the plunder of national resources under the Chiluba regime.
London High Court judge Peter Smith on Friday ordered Chiluba to pay about US$35 million.
This was after judge Smith established that Chiluba had defrauded Zambia a total of US$41 million through the BK Facility and the Zamtrop account in London. Judge Smith has ordered Chiluba to pay about 85 per cent of the total sum (US$41 million) within 14 days upon service of the judgment. Judge Smith found that instead of preventing corruption, Chiluba active participated in it and ensured that it happened.
Chiluba has maintained that he does not recognise the jurisdiction of the London High Court since Zambia was a sovereign state.
Sata said he was clean of corruption especially that he grew up in poverty.
"Mwanawasa cannot say anything about corruption because he became President through corruption," Sata said.
He told the crowd that even the money that the London Court has ordered Chiluba to pay back benefited President Mwanawasa more since it was the one that Chiluba used to campaign for him in 2001.
"They are all thieves," Sata said as the crowd gave him another wild applause. "Who knew Mwanawasa before Chiluba picked on him?"
He said President Mwanawasa's time of reckoning was getting nearer since he would leave State House just as his predecessors did.
And Sata said President Mwanawasa's foreign investment policies were making the life of indigenous people miserable. He said it was shameful that President Mwanawasa has continued to place the interests of foreigners before those of the people he was leading.
Labels: CHILUBA, CORRUPTION, MWANAWASA, SATA
posted by MrK @ 4:03 AM
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