PF Secretary General Davies Mwila says former opposition UPND vice-president Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba (GBM) has been officially welcomed back to the ruling party with open arms.

And Mwila said just like any other member of the party, Mwamba will be treated equally and that the party will give him all the support he needs to bring back all the members he had left with.

But Mwila said the Central Committee will sit on May 24 to determine Mwamba’s readmission.

Mwila said this at the PF secretariat Tuesday when Mwamba paid a courtesy call on him.

“Thank you very much honourable Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba, you are welcome to the party secretariat. We have been waiting for this opportunity for us to meet and we have met today. And I want to say that politics is about numbers and that is the more reason we want to welcome all those who want to come back to the party. Reconciliation is very important amongst our members and that is the more reason honourable you are most welcome. We will give you maximum support as you go round to ensure that you bring [back] all those who went to UPND,” Mwila said.

Asked if the welcome signified that Mwamba had officially been readmitted to the party, Mwila said the Central Commitee was yet to sit and determine the matter.

“Yes I did promise the media that Mr Mwamba had written to the party for readmission and the central committee will sit on 24th [May]. We were supposed to sit on Saturday 18th but the president will be going to the Copperbelt for an urgent issue. So the matter will be heard on 24th together with that of Eric Chanda. So we will make a decision. But I want to state that this is a starting point for a bright future,” Mwila explained.

Mwamba thanked Mwila for welcoming him and emphasised that he did rejoin the party to get any position.

“Secretary General we are very excited to be back. This is where we belong. I think it’s important to mention that we as politicians should go by what the majority says. So secretary general I wish you can convey my message to the president, President Edgar Chagwa Lungu that we are so grateful and personally the way I know him, the man has no qualms in his ears unlike other opposition leaders [who] if they say “yes” [then] they mean “no.” I wish also to state that we are here, we are back, we shall follow the rules of the party once again, which I am very much alive to,” Mwamba said.

“We have already started bringing back all those that I went with back into PF. Again I want to apologize in front of the nation that I took them to the wrong party. Please bear with me I am very sorry and please let’s move back. Let’s go back to PF because in other parties we were merely passengers. And how can a politician like GBM be a mare passenger where you have no say? We need to have a say. And I wish to tell the nation that I haven’t come back to Patriotic Front to get a position, I have come here to build the party that I helped to form government in 2011. I will just be a mere member.”