PF media director Sunday Chanda says Our Civic Duty Association (OCIDA)’S attacks on President Edgar Lungu proves that it is an opposition political party that serves as a surrogate of the UPND.

Last Wednesday, OCIDA said that President Lungu had lamentably failed to deal with various governance issues like corruption in Zambia.

But in a statement to News Diggers, Thursday, Chanda charged that the organization consisted of business associates of UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema.

“When OCIDA was formed, we were very skeptical of the integrity of their intentions given the fact that the make-up of their ‘directors’ was by and large a motley of vindictive individuals carrying the burden of miscarried political careers sprinkled with an assemblage of ‘civic leaders’ with less than flattering pasts. As for its ‘council of elders’, there were one or two names of eminent senior citizens that on the face of it were worthy of respect,” Chanda stated.

“Their recent personal attacks on His Excellency President Edgar Chagwa Lungu have put all doubts to rest. OCIDA is a political animal baring its toothless mouth with hostile intent! Theirs is an organization comprising business and political associates of Hakainde Hichilema. This makes them a de-facto opposition political party that serves as a surrogate of UPND and irritable political chaperone of Hichilema. It is very unfortunate that the ‘elders’ and ‘retired citizens’ of OCIDA can look the other way when their spokesperson insults the President.”

Chanda said insulting President Lungu could only come from minds corrupted by hate.

“It is not our wish to insult them back as we believe in respect and decency – especially for senior citizens. However, we caution them, once again, that the few among them that are still respectable risk wrecking and ruining their legacy in the evening of their lives. History abounds with examples of great men and women making a shipwreck of their legacies at the eleventh hour. Ad-hominem attacks and using insulting language on the person of the President can only come from minds corrupted by hate. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, OCIDA’s very existence is testimony to the ever-expanding civil liberties and pluralistic setting under the exceptionally tolerant Patriotic Front government of His Excellency President Edgar Chagwa Lungu,” stated Chanda.