Lukuku fears for his life
Lukuku fears for his lifeBy Chibaula Silwamba
Friday October 03, 2008 [04:00]
NATIONAL Revolution Party (NRP) former secretary general James Lukuku yesterday revealed that he is fearing for his life following his recent revelation that Vice-President Rupiah Banda paid the NRP to endorse his candidature ahead of the October 30 presidential elections.
Narrating the threats he has been receiving following his revelations last week, Lukuku said New Generation Party (NGP) president Humphrey Siulapwa - who has endorsed Vice-President Banda’s candidature - had informed him that his life was under threat hence he Siulapwa was ready to organise a press conference at which he could denounce The Post and apologise to Vice-President Banda.
“I would like to tell all the Zambians that this testimony that I am giving, if anything happened to me today or tomorrow, according to the information that I have gotten, Siulapwa has claimed he has very strong connections with the government, he has told me that the Office of the President personnel are after me.
He is actually saying the government is so displeased with the statements I have been making to the media as of late,” said Lukuku in an interview at Post head office in Lusaka. “Should anything happen to me, Zambians will have their own judgment as to where and how I have died, if it means dying. Whatever thing should happen to me that is unfortunate, touching on my soul, on my body, on my life.
“I am hereby saying that Zambians will have to judge and will know where my death would come from because even when I have just arrived at The Post offices there is a number that has just called me, the number is 0966340948. This call is from an anonymous caller who has just told me that he has just given me brotherly advice who said that if I love my life I should desist from the statements that I have been making of late.
This call can be retrieved and traced from MTN because he was using MTN number and it can be confirmed that I was telling the truth, just like the SMS I received from Siulapwa. These are my concerns,” Lukuku said. “But I have to mention that this is not the first time. I have been receiving anonymous calls asking about my whereabouts and everything. I want to state here categorically that whatever the case is, I can never be scared because I believe that it is only God that knows my destiny. If this is the cause for which I was meant to be killed, if this is a cause for which I was meant to die, there is no way I can be scared because no one runs away from death. If these people can’t take me down, other diseases or other vices could always take my life.”
Lukuku declared that he would never be intimidated.
“I will never be scared of anything and I am always going to speak what I know and I am never going to reverse my statement for the sake of anybody else or anything else. This is the truth,” Lukuku said.
Lukuku narrated that on Tuesday, Siulapwa asked him for a meeting at which they would find the way forward concerning his revelations.
“I have been approached by Humphrey Siulapwa. The first day that I met him, it was at Lusaka Hotel on Tuesday. I received a call after I had a programme on Yatsani Radio, which apparently Siulapwa was listening to. He called me immediately after I finished the interview with Mwenya Mukuku of Yatsani Radio. He said that he really wanted to meet me. So I was not in the position of refusing saying, ‘you, you can’t meet me.’ That was on phone and we made an appointment that we meet at Lusaka Hotel. So when I got into town about an hour or so, around 10:00 hours, Siulapwa called me and said he was already at Lusaka Hotel if I was ready to meet him,” Lukuku narrated. “So, I went to Lusaka Hotel where we had a meeting and he said that he was very worried and very concerned about the issues that I was saying in the newspaper about the publications that have been coming from The Post.
He categorically told me that the very important thing he was concerned about was the fact that he had concrete information, using his connections with the government, that the biggest thing that was at stake was my life. He mentioned that the OP persons Office of the President/Zambia Security Intelligence Service were underground looking at my issue, looking at all the activities that I am doing and he specifically put it that for now I don’t have to consider myself as somebody who is free and that I have created too many enemies. He mentioned that I have stepped on very dangerous toes and that my life was really in danger.”
Lukuku said Siulapwa told him that the only way he Lukuku could gain back his freedom, move freely again and ensure his future safety, was by apologising to Vice-President Banda.
“Siulapwa said that he was in the position of organising a press conference on which I could do so and he said as a young person, I don’t have anything to lose.
The other thing that could help me get back friendship with the government and the state machinery was in fact that I should denounce The Post and say that they had bribed me into giving the story which has dominated the media in the recent past for a week or so and that he was going to organise a press conference where I could do so,” Lukuku narrated. “Siulapwa was actually going to facilitate my meeting with Cozmo Mumba president of NRP so that we apparently do reconciliation in line with the same so that we could actually shame the enemy, the enemies being the media particularly and specifically The Post being the media institution that actually originated the story.”
Lukuku said, in response, he told Siulapwa he was ready to meet Cozmo.
“I said that quite alright I have always been of the concerns that the government is not pleased with the statement that I made, if you are saying that there is that interest for me to meet with Cozmo and to meet with you so that we can discuss whatever has happened in the recent few days.
I said it is okay we can have a meeting which he proposed that it was supposed to be held at his residence in Chelstone,” Lukuku narrated. “Siulapwa was going to play the mediatory role then me I was actually going to have a discussion with Cozmo then we can plan and forge ahead on how best I could shift the tables around and denounce The Post newspaper.”
However, he said he consulted his relatives and friends who advised him not to attend any such meetings.
“...because I have got relatives, friends and advisors, I went and I told my uncle, I told a certain colleague of mine from NRP and few other people. I told them about the development and everybody advised me not even to respond to their telephone calls, not even to have any meetings with either Cozmo or Siulapwa concerning anything to do with the bribery allegations, bribery case I have put against the (Acting) Republican President Mr Rupiah Banda. It was around 18:00 hours or 19:00 hours on Tuesday, Siulapwa called me. He said ‘where am I going to find you’? So by then I was heading home, so I told him that you are going to meet me at Friday’s Corner, somewhere near Kabulonga,” Lukuku explained. “When I got home he Siulapwa called me, I never picked up the phone. He called me again but I didn’t pick up the phone. He called me about 19 or 20 times but I didn’t pick up the phone.”He said after that, Siulapwa sent him a text message.
“What followed was a text message which read as follows: ‘My young brother, be strong, this is your opportunity to get your freedom back. If you can’t come at least talk to me.’ This message came at 19:07 hours. He text me using mobile phone number 0977637824,” Lukuku explained.
Lukuku further explained that after receiving that text message, Siulapwa called him again twice but he did not pick up his phone.
“But when he called the third time after I received the message, I spoke to him and what I said was, ‘I have decided to cancel the meeting.’ I told him that I am not in a position of meeting Cozmo Mumba and you might as well excuse me,” Lukuku explained. “Then he said, ‘James I am your friend, I know you might not be in a position of meeting Cozmo Mumba but can we meet again tomorrow’ meaning Wednesday, meaning yesterday, ‘so that I tell you the direction we are supposed to take’.”
He said at this point, he agreed to meet Siulapwa the following day at Lusaka Hotel.
“That was how yesterday I went to meet him at Lusaka Hotel. When we met at Lusaka Hotel on Wednesday around 14:00 hours it was about the same story but this time it had even intensified because he had now said he was going to organise a package.
Part of it was going to be used for press conference at Holiday Inn or at Lusaka Hotel, part of it was going to come to me and the basis of the press conference was for me to discredit The Post and whereby I was going to shake hands with Cozmo and say ‘we have been used by the media’ and say ‘The Post have blown this case to unacceptable proportion otherwise that was just a donation which was refused’,” Lukuku explained. “And what the meeting was to resolve was that Siulapwa was going to draft a statement for me which I was just supposed to read at the press conference, whereby I was not supposed to say anything that was coming from my own conscience but I was supposed to say something that was supposed to come from Siulapwa having drafted it and I was going to follow in that direction.”
However, Lukuku said he had planned to use the same press conference to denounce the orginisers.
“What was of interest to me was that the bravery I was going to show was attending the press conference, then I was going to shame them even more by denouncing them even more, using their own press conference to speak with my conscienceness because everything I am doing is not coming out of malice, everything that I am doing is not coming out of being a good boy for anybody but it’s out of principle,” he said.
Lukuku further said he had observed how Americans conducted their politics in a clean manner.
“In American politics, you don’t need to pay anybody anything for you to be nominated as a candidate for the Democrats or Republicans. You have to show your intelligence and capabilities that you have and people are going to judge you on that premise,” Lukuku observed. “That has been my interest and the quest I am going to champion and that is the future that I would like to create for this country so that anything that we are going to do should be done on clean basis.”
Lukuku explained that Siulapwa told him to be on the side of the government if he wanted to be safe.
“Siulapwa was actually telling me that ‘when you look at your security, you are not going to compare yourself with the people that are trying to use you. That is The Post newspaper. Look at Fred M’membe’; according to him he said M’membe is the owner of The Post. He said Fred M’membe stays in a well-secured house, Fred M’membe drives a bullet-proof Mercedes Benz and wherever he goes, he drives himself and wherever he goes he is secured and it’s very difficult for the government to touch him,” Lukuku explained. “Siulapwa said ‘you cannot compare yourself to Fred M’membe because you are walking around and you are everywhere, you don’t even have money and you don’t have resources to protect yourself like Fred M’membe, the person who is trying to use you’.”
Lukuku also dismissed allegations that he had been paid by The Post for the story.
“When I came here, I gave the story to the reporter, Agness, and I left. I didn’t stand here to say, ‘Oh! Mr. Malupenga are you going to give me some money for transport? Are you going to give some money that I am going to use because I have given you this story? No, because that is against the virtues and values that I believe in,” Lukuku said. “I am not going to do anything for the sake that I should be paid, for the sake that I should destroy some people. I am always going to make statements that are in accordance with the truth and in accordance with my beliefs.”
Lukuku also said The Post, through its editorial comments, columns, letters to the editor page and other contents had helped many Zambians to know a lot of things that were going on within and outside Zambia.
But when contacted for comment, Siulapwa said he did not want to be dragged into the NRP saga.
“First all of all, Mr Chibaula Silwamba, you The Post as far as you are concerned me, Siulapwa, is not a newsmaker. I have nothing sensible that I can give to you. So why do you want my views?” Siulapwa asked.
When reminded that The Post was giving him an opportunity to give his side of the story to balance it in the spirit of fairness before it was published, Siulapwa said: “Which fairness are you talking about? Just because the story is in your favour, you are talking about fairness. Anyway, my point is that I am not prepared to talk to you because you are not prepared to cover me.”
Siulapwa said he was not a member of NRP hence he did not want to discuss what was going on in that party.
“Let me say that I am not a member of NRP and I have nothing to do with the NRP saga and I am not prepared to drag myself into the things which I don’t know,” Siulapwa said.
Asked if he had phoned, sent him any message or met Lukuku to advise him about the dangers on his life; and to persuade him to apologise to Vice-President Banda and denounce The Post, Siulapwa responded: “I have no story for you.”
Labels: DEATH THREATS, JAMES LUKUKU, NRP
posted by MrK @ 5:09 AM
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