Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD) leader Charles Milupi says it is not the duty of the Chief Government Spokesperson to respond to concerns raised with regard to the wealth of President Edgar Lungu.

In an interview with News Diggers! Milupi said that the allegations which were raised by Roan Member of Parliament Chishimba Kambwili concerning the riches accumulated by the Head of State were of personal nature and that they required the President himself to respond.

“Kampamba Mulenga gets paid for being a Spokesperson for the government, she is not a Spokesperson for Mr Lungu. The accusations that are coming from Mr Kambwili about the President’s riches are of a personal nature, he is making specific allegations regarding what the President has in terms of the various construction sites of buildings that are being built for him and as such these allegations require Mr Lungu himself to assure the nation that there is nothing to worry about. It is not the government Spokesperson to leave her job of being a Spokesperson for government to become a Spokesperson for Mr Lungu,” Milupi said.

“In any case she is talking nonsense because when she says that Mr Lungu was a very rich lawyer and so on, it goes against what people know. Being a lawyer, Mr Lungu was known by people and they used to see where he lived, where he socialised, who he mixed with and there was no evidence of wealth. In any case, when you become Member of Parliament, you declare exactly what you have. Can she (Mulenga) bring out the declarations of Mr Lungu in 2011 just when he became Member of Parliament, what is it that he had? And when he stood as President in 2015 again there was a declaration at the Supreme Court, what was in the declaration? That is where we are talking of about k1.8 million, is that what she means by ‘he had a lot of money?’ Again in 2016, what did he declare? And that jump from what he declared in 2015 to what he declared in 2016, we want him to account for that.”

Milupi said President Lungu had abrogated the Constitution if he hid some of the riches he had before he became President.

“If Ms Mulenga is saying that President Lungu had so much wealth then she is implying that he didn’t declare it fully in 2015 and that he didn’t declare it fully when he was a Parliamentarian in 2011 and if the government Spokesperson is saying that Mr Lungu didn’t declare it fully in 2015…the requirement to declare what you own fully is a constitutional requirement so if Ms Mulenga is saying that in actual fact, the President had so much wealth than what was declared in 2015, she is in fact saying that the President abrogated the Constitution and therefore it must be one of the cases that should be taken into account for not adhering to the Constitution. It means he can not be the President of this country,” he said.

Milupi challenged the President to put the matter to bed by explaining how he got all the riches he had acquired in a space of two years of being President of Zambia

“So face the facts, the after income that is now evident starting from the twenty something billion that has been declared, we want to know where that extra money came from. We want the President to tell us if he has some investments where he is getting all this money from so that we can all go and invest their and then Mr Kambwili is making allegations of various construction and some of these we do see pictures of Casinos, flats and other things and he is even naming contractors that are getting government contracts, he is alleging that they are ones who are constructing for the President and it’s not only Mr Chishimba Kambwili even Mr Saviour Chishimba is making similar allegations. It is for the President to answer because pictures are being put in the public place on social media so the government Spokesperson must confine herself to the job which she is paid to do,” Milupi said.

Meanwhile, Milupi said the conduct of President Lungu and his delegation while in Swaziland where he had gone to officiate at that country’s Trade fair was an insult to the dignity of the Zambian Presidency.

“If you are going to send a delegation to a traditional ceremony and you go and expose yourself in the manner that we have seen pictures, of what benefit is that to Zambia? The Reed Dance has been going on for so many years, it’s a tradition for the Swazi people which unfortunately may not be in the modern day life to get young girls to expose their breast like that but again you with your whole self as President you go and expose yourself like that? I think that was a shame and it removed the dignity from the Zambian Presidency,” said Milupi.

“In addition to the big delegation that was carried, we noticed that there were personal friends who had nothing to do with government whatsoever and they traveled on the Presidential plane, they were settled by the Presidential money. This is diminishing Zambia’s dignity in the eyes of the world. The people who accompanied the President and the President himself can they explain to us why they were only ones that who dressed in the manner they did.”