ADD president Charles Milupi says he is wondering why Higer Bus has chosen to involved itself in the accusation he made against President Edgar Lungu over the phasing out of small buses in 2019.

Last week, Milupi charged that President Lungu was going to benefit from the government’s move to phase out small busses because he had already bought himself 57 buses.

His remarks were followed by a warning from President Lungu’s spokesperson Amos Chanda, who said Higer Bus asked for clearance from him to sue Milupi for linking the company to State House corruption.

“The President buying a Higer bus is not a crime, but for Milupi to say the boss has bought 57 buses corruptly is maligning the company. So Higer Bus has asked us if they can sue Milupi… I am eager for this company to sue so that we can expose the lies of this man,” said Chanda in an interview with News Diggers!

However, Milupi expressed shock, saying he never mentioned Higer in his statement, and wondered why the company was panicking.

“The only statement I have made concerning buses is the one that I made at the press conference which was made at the UPND secretariat which you attended, am sure you recorded. That statement dealt with the proposed resolve to phase out small buses in this country. And the theme of that was to say that look at the number of people who are operating these buses, they support families. And I said ‘there is an allegation that this is being done because people in leadership have already bought buses’, I am sure that is what the recording that you got says, so where does Higer come in?” he asked

“The question is why are they panicking? Why are they getting themselves involved in matters where a citizen is exercising their freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of discussing matters of national interest, why are they getting themselves involved? What I know is that Higer Bus is not a Zambian company, it is a foreign company, so why are they panicking?”

Milupi said he was eager to go to court and cross examine the company’s interest in the matter.

“So I think we are touching some very sensitive names, if they want to involve themselves in matters of Zambia, they are well at liberty to go ahead and they will have to go and state exactly what I said and how they are connected to it because I don’t know how they are connected to it. Secondly, they have exposed themselves as being one of the favoured companies. For them to decide to sue me, they had to go to State House to get permission, that is what tells you what is going on here. How does an Indian company get involved?” Milupi asked.

At no time did I mention that company, at no time did I mention what they are saying. But if they want that to be proved in court, let them go ahead. We have a court system that listens to arguments and if they are the ones who are coming to give evidence, let them be. Am sure my lawyers will be very happy to cross-examine them, they will be extremely happy. They will have to explain why they have taken it upon themselves to be the defendants of President Lungu, President Lungu should be defended by the citizens of this country and not by foreigners. And That doesn’t scare me, we shall not stop exposing what is wrong for this country just because of a foreign company that wants to scare people.”