Roan PF member of parliament Chishimba Kambwili says he is shocked that Lusaka lawyer Lewis Mosho wants to get rich in one day by demanding K5 million as compensation after Lusaka High Court threw out his petition to join the impeachment case with costs.

And Kambwili expressed happiness that the PF government has accepted that the Church should lead the dialogue process.

Speaking to journalists shortly after appearing for mention at Lusaka’s Magistrates Court, Monday, Kambwili said there was no way Mosho could demand K5 million for just one court appearance.

“Today I wake up to a rude shock that, you know, being a lawyer has become so lucrative that you can go to court once and ask for K5 million of costs. I think I should enrol also to become a lawyer. Mosho is claiming K5 million in costs for going into court one day. I should also become a lawyer, you can be rich like him,” Kambwili said.

“We are going to appeal. I should be meeting my colleague, Honourable Nkombo, today or tomorrow and we should be meeting our legal team to appeal.”

Kambwili insisted that the impeachment motion was extremely important, saying Zambians cannot have a “thieving President” in State House.

“Gentlemen, we cannot have a thieving President in State House. A President who is stealing openly with impunity to the extent that he is even starts signing on loan agreements. Where on earth? You know, it’s like a Cabinet Minister signing an offer of a contract at a Ministry. It’s illegal. The President has no mandate or power to sign any loan agreement,” Kambwili said.

“Those can only be signed by the Minister of Finance or Secretary to the Cabinet or the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. There is nowhere under this earth you can search from America, from Asia, from Austria or Africa, there has never been any President in the history of the world who has signed for the loan agreement except one great leader, Edgar Lungu from Chawama.”

And Kambwili he was excited that the PF had accepted that the Church should lead the dialogue process.

“In my last statement, I said, it was very difficult for some people to differentiate sense from nonsense. Now that they are seeing sense, let them join our band wagon because we told them that [for] these dialogue to succeed, they needed to be chaired and undertaken by the Church mother bodies because Zambia is a Christian nation and we all believe in the Church. The Church has done so much, even in the past. You remember during the Kaunda time, it was the Church that led the talks that led to multi-party democracy. You remember when President Michael Sata died and PF was divided, we had to go to the Church to facilitate the reconciliation. So, the Church has done so much for this country and there is no way you can pick a group of five or six political parties, you call the ZCID [Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue] and tell them that; ‘lead the process’ and by the way you heard the President giving them instructions to say consider the Church. So, you know that, that is a surrogate of State House. We want independent people with independent minds,” Kambwili demanded.

“Let me warn some NGOs; mother bodies like the one led by Pukuta Mwanza that, he will end up being disgruntled in his quest to try and support everything the PF says and do even if they don’t make sense. We respect Pukuta Mwanza as a man of God and we expect that even if he is eating with President Edgar Lungu, at least let him remain with some integrity. You have heard even what VJ has said that we should avoid compromised mother bodies, and I think Pukuta Mwanza has put his organization in a very dangerous position. So, my appeal to him is be neutral because he has shown that for him it is Edgar Lungu and PF all the way.”

Meanwhile, Kambwili disclosed that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had not yet advertised for the mayoral candidate.

“We are a baby born with teeth. We have not yet called for the applications, but at an appropriate time the secretary general (Mwenya Musenge) will advertise and will call for applications. And if Saboi [Imboela] is interested, we will look at her credentials. If her credentials become the best, then why not? She is a Zambian,” said Kambwili.

Trial in a matter in which Kambwili is charged with 36 counts of abuse of office is scheduled to commence on June 4.