MMD president Nevers Mumba has accused President Edgar Lungu of defying a High Court order by entertaining his nominated member of parliament Rapheal Nakacinda, who is masquerading as MMD national secretary.

Speaking on Prime TV’s Oxygen of Democracy, Monday, Mumba said President Lungu was setting a very bad precedent on the integrity of the Presidential office by defying the court which recognized him as the legitimate opposition party leader.

“I was very distraught last night (Sunday) when I watched on television that the President himself introduced Raphael Nakacinda as having nominated him from the MMD as an MMD person. The problem with that is that I think the President is setting himself up in a very very bad way. Number one, Raphael Nakacinda whom I don’t talk about because really he is not an issue to us; he is a young man, we have nothing to do with him. He has no power to do anything, he has no hold on the MMD. The judgement was very clear which simply said not only was he not a national secretary of the party but he has never been a national secretary at law,” Mumba said.

“Everything they did in Kabwe was illegal and the court ruled that they should have nothing to do with the MMD because they remained expelled. [For] the President to stand and introduce Nakacinda as an MMD person contradicts the very integrity of the Presidential office. Nakacinda is doing tremendous damage to the image of this President. The President is aware that there is a judgment on the table that Nakacinda is not a member of the party. Nakacinda has gone out of his way to have meetings using the name of MMD that he is national secretary in total contradiction to the judgement. He has had several of those meetings and he has been covered by the media; you the media cover him, clap for him that he is still the national secretary although the judgement has been made.”

He said Nakacinda was supposed to arrested for defying the High Court order.

“The difficulty with that behavior of lawlessness, no regard for law, especially coming from the highest office because what happens is that Nakacinda was supposed to be arrested for the many things; for the vehicles and those dockets are opened at the police station. When we went there, the police have frozen! They are paralyzed because one of the police persons said ‘but we saw Nakacinda in the Presidential jet; so if we touch him, we are touching the President’, I said to them, ‘a criminal is a criminal whether he is on a bicycle of a poor man or in a Presidential jet’,” he said.

“If we don’t deal with this matter, we are going to get into trouble! That man is not supposed to be in the Presidential jet, he is supposed to be in jail for either contempt of court or for the vehicles that he has taken up to now there is no trace where those vehicles are. It is only that I have told my team, ‘let us find ways in which to resolve this issue outside the courts’ but otherwise he is supposed to be in jail.”

Mumba lamented that Nakacinda had continued defying the court order because he was being supported by President Lungu.

“So we are appealing to the President, he has the right and the constitutional powers to appoint and nominate anybody to become a member of parliament but he has no authority to impose a member on the MMD. I am asking the President to show me respect as president of MMD but also to show respect to the MMD just like I show a lot of respect to the President, I also show respect to his party the PF because they have got their opportunity and right to function and work within this country the same for MMD. I just feel that what the President is being implicated in, he has now drawn a line between the Executive and the Judiciary because it is no longer Nakacinda because now I know why he behaves like that because the President supports him and he tells people that now that the President supports him, he can do what he is doing,” Mumba said.

“Nakacinda has dissed the Judgement of the court and he has said ‘he is not going to obey it. He is still national secretary, he is still going to do that’. The President, the moment he heard that should have said that ‘no no young man, you touch the Judiciary and the systems of government, I cannot be involved with that.The implication is if Nakacinda is not going to follow the judgement of the High Court, then it also goes to say that no judgment of any court can be respected including the one from the ConCourt which gave President Lungu the way to stand in 2021. That is now making ourselves become Animal Farm! What makes a nation progressive and attractive is our capacity to abide by our rules.”

Mumba warned of confrontations with President Lungu and himself if he continued to entertain Nakacinda as MMD national secretary.

“We are waiting for the President to speak on this matter; he has not addressed himself to the Nakacinda issue. Nakacinda is not a member of the MMD. We were told that he was appointed as MMD national secretary so that the alliance that existed can be maintained by that nomination; but the court ruled Nakacinda is not the national secretary and the court went further to say he is not a member of MMD, he stands expelled! So it is up to the President to make that decision. Is he going to continue with him? He has the right to do so but not under the MMD,” said Mumba.

“I think the President should give us that space, we do not want to get in some confrontation with him where we start now going after each other’s necks, and we have the capacity to do that. I have been treated like this twice before under president Michael Sata the late may his soul rest in peace. I am ready to defend the MMD starting tonight moving forward! The reason why people voted for me in 2012, one of the things that was clear was that Nevers Mumba could defend the party in the lost state. So I am saying if the President continues to entertain this man under the MMD, we don’t mind entertaining him in any other capacity but in the name of MMD, we will fight and God is on our side. We shall win the fight.”