Maravi

Solwezi UPND officials accuse Mulongoti of distributing ‘tujilijili’

Solwezi UPND officials accuse Mulongoti of distributing ‘tujilijili’
By Zumani Katasefa in Kitwe
Thu 29 Apr. 2010, 03:30 CAT

UPND officials in Solwezi yesterday accused MMD chairman for elections Mike Mulongoti of allegedly distributing sachets of beer commonly known as tujilijili to woo voters in today’s Shilende ward by-election. But Mulongoti said the accusations against him were baseless and aimed at tarnishing his image.

Solwezi district UPND vice-chairman Rabbi Laishi alleged that Mulongoti went to Shilende ward in Solwezi West with six by 90 kilogrammes sachets of tujilijili, which he gave to district and constituency officials to distribute to people who attended the campaign meeting at Manyama Basic School on Tuesday.

“It is sad that the MMD are using tujilijili to entice people to vote for their candidate Burton Kasusu. Instead of doing that, they should concentrate their energies on addressing serious issues affecting the people,” Laishi said.

“It is very sad for the MMD to distribute beer to the people instead of giving them food.”

Laishi said the MMD used government vehicles to conduct their campaigns in Shilende, a situation he described as very unfortunate.

“A GRZ vehicle with registration number CE 68 was seen ferrying people to the MMD meeting which was held at Manyama Basic School. As UPND we are not going to allow this. We are definitely going to put an end to this,” he said.

Laishi complained that the MMD in the area bribed people with K10,000 notes so that they could vote for their candidate in the by-election.

“And the former chief Shilende of the Kaonde people is threatening people that if they vote for the UPND candidate Savule Mwanda they would be chased away from the area. But these are just threats from the former chief, he is also not an indigenous person of this area. So these are just empty threats,” Laishi said.

But Mulongoti denied having distributed the beer sachets to the electorate in Solwezi.
“How can I distribute tujilijili? I even don’t know that. What is tujilijili?” Mulongoti asked. “I was in Manyama, yes, and I addressed an orderly meeting. I never distributed tujilijili.”

Mulongoti said he addressed teachers at Manyama Basic School who raised various issues, which they wanted the government to address immediately.

“Our campaign in Shilende is very clean. It is not true that we are using government vehicles, there is no government vehicle which we are using,” Mulongoti said.

Mulongoti expressed confidence that the MMD would scoop the Shilende ward seat that fell vacant after the death of MMD candidate Brown Kungo last year.

Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, CORRUPTION, MIKE MULONGOTI, RABBI LAISHI

posted by MrK @ 2:49 PM