Justice Minister Given Lubinda says he doesn’t know South Africa-based Nigerian prophet Andrew Ejimandu popularly known as Seer 1 and he will be very upset if he is included on a list of PF officials who got some supernatural powers.

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo and his Livestock counterpart Professor Nkandu Luo have declined to comment on the Seer 1 saga.

Earlier this week, a bizarre video went viral on social media in which Seer 1 issued threats against unnamed ministers, some members of parliament and mayors whom he claimed he had assisted with some supernatural “powers” to win the 2016 elections.

Seer 1 threatened that should these officials fail to return his things within 20 days, he would kill them.

Subsequent to Seer 1’s utterances, some conspiracy theories were formed by some Netizens who published pictures of Lubinda and other PF officials who like wearing Black Onyx rings, claiming that the rings were what the prophet was referring to.

But commenting on this in an interview, Lubinda distanced himself from Seer 1, saying that he would actually be very upset if he went ahead to name him as one of those who obtained some ‘powers’.

He also charged that Seer 1 was being sponsored by people against the ruling party.

“Did he mention my name? If he didn’t mention my name, leave me out of it! My point is that, if he did not mention my name, then leave me out of it! If he mentioned my name, then I will take him on so that he can prove. If he didn’t mention my name, then leave me out of it because I cannot speak on behalf of members of the PF and say, ‘they never interacted with him’; how can I do that? He said that, ‘he gave some powers to PF members’ that is why I asked you: ‘did he mention my name?’ I cannot know if he spoke to anybody. The only thing is that he did not mention my name; I don’t know him and he has never spoken to me, and I will be very upset if he was to include me,” Lubinda said.

“They are not false prophets, some of those fellows are sponsored by people who are against the ruling party! So, let us leave it at that and let him give you the information that he has; let him give you the evidence. You know, as journalists, you should be able to write evidenced-based stories; you don’t just write that he spoke, you write. You are even called Diggers! what do you dig? Nothing!”

Lubinda wondered why Seer 1 had failed to mention even one name, arguing that failure to do so was taking away from his credibility.

“I saw those pictures (posted on social media) also, but who is the one who published those pictures? Those pictures could be manufactured by anyone. What you have to do as Diggers! is to go to the same prophet and say, ‘these allegations made are very damaging, can you mention one person that you interacted with, that you gave him powers? Tell us one name?’ For him to just say, ‘no! They know themselves!’ That is literally saying that, ‘I don’t want to mention because I don’t have anybody to mention.’ So, this Seer 1 guy of yours is steering without any credibility to his story; and he is hoping that people like you at News Diggers! would be excited and start writing stories,” said Lubinda.

“Ask him: ‘who do you interact with?’ He may not even have a name; he will just say, ‘mukamona bakafwa! (you will see them, they will die!)’ So, you just have to wait and see until the 20 days elapses, then you will see those who interacted with him dying, isn’t it? As for me, I cannot speak on behalf of the many PF members; PF has so many members; how can I know whether he interacted with 10 or 20 or five or one; I can’t know! The only thing I can say is that I don’t think the man has ever interacted with me. I don’t remember interacting with him.”

And Kampyongo declined to comment on the threats.

“I am a bit busy. I have got a PRO. Can you get through the PRO, please, he is paid for that,” said Kampyongo in a brief interview before abruptly cutting the line.

Meanwhile, Prof Luo also declined to comment saying her Religious Affairs counterpart Reverend Godfridah Sumaili was ably dealing with the issue.

“I think what you do, you speak to honourable Sumaili. I think she is the one dealing with all those kind of things. For me, I would like to focus on my job. You know this thing of any little story that you hear, you don’t even verify, me I really don’t want to comment on part of these discussions which are on social media which are now tarnishing our names. I said which are tarnishing our names; I said I don’t want to be part of those discussions myself. I think the person who is doing that issue is honorable Sumaili. What you can do is investigative reporting. If you spoke to her [yesterday], that is enough. Being a member of PF does not give me the authority to be commenting on anything because I am a member of PF. I have no authority to comment. Speak to the Minister of Religious Affairs; me I am a Minister of Livestock. If you want to talk to me about livestock, I will be happy to talk. Don’t bring us all into these discussions, it is not proffessional; there is a Minister in charge of that responsibility,” said Prof Luo.