Diamond TV proprietor Costa Mwansa was yesterday forced to interview Roan PF member of parliament Chishimba Kambwili via telephone as the later failed to show up at the studio saying he had gotten information that the ruling party had sponsored cadres to attack him.

And Kambwili has insisted that he no longer wants to be a member of parliament or minister in 2021 because he has gained enough experience for the top job.

When the show dubbed COSTA begun at 20:00 hours, Kambwili was not in the studio but was readily available to conduct the interview via telephone.

“In politics we got what we call intelligence and I was reliably informed by our intelligence team and of course in consultation with State agencies that the Patriotic Front has organised cadres from intercity to come and disrupt the programme and cause some confusion. But because some of us are not interested in politics of confrontation and violence, we avoided coming to Diamond TV studios,” Kambwili told Mwansa.

“So I really feel so disappointed that in this era and age people can be thinking of going to cause confusion at a Television station where interview would be going on. So I apologise to the viewers that we are not able to be in studio today because we were pre-warned and so we regret that we couldn’t make it on TV. We don’t want to be involved in confrontation with anybody.”

He narrated that some PF cadres alerted him whilst he was still at Parliament about the planned attack.

“We have got youths within the PF who get information for us and today they just called my driver around 17:00 hours and because I was in Parliament they told him to say ‘we want to speak to the honourable very urgently’ and the driver came and asked for me from Parliament and he told me what the boys had told him and so we called them back and then they explained to say ‘we’ve been told to be on standby and as soon as the programme starts, we will jump on buses to come and cause some problems’. We also asked our internal intelligence to quickly rush there and sniff and they came and told us that yes it is actually planned. So you can see that my intelligence is up to date,” Kambwili said.

And Kambwili said he had no intentions of contesting as member of parliament in 2021.

“I have already made a statement that in 2021 I am no longer interested in either being a member of parliament or a minister, I think I have garnered enough experience and I have seen that there so many mistakes that are being made by those in authority which are making the lives of our people unbearable. But on which ticket I am standing in 2021, we shall cross the bridge when we get there but as for now I am still PF and I am consultant for NDC just like [Felix] Mutati is MMD but he is a Finance minister in PF. So if Mutati can be a minister and then leader of a political party, why shouldn’t I consult with NDC? I am PF in brackets and NDC consultant off brackets, that’s food for thought for you,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kambwili said he would not waste his time reporting corruption involving PF officials to the ACC because nothing could be done as President Edgar Lungu was also involved.

“I would not want to waste my time to go to the Anti-Corruption Commission because in most of these deals, the President is involved, so no action can be taken even if you report. But I have given so much evidence and if ACC was free they could have investigated some people. If ACC was serious, the Economist Intelligence Unit has written a report mentioning some ministers as having a lot of stolen money, they could have followed them. So what more evidence do they want?” asked Kambwili