Green Party president Peter Sinkamba says neither Section 5 of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) Act of 2010 nor any other law bars the FIC from disseminating its findings to the public.

And Sinkamba has warned the PF members who are pressurizing their leadership to fire the FIC boss and her team that he will petition the Constitutional Court to order a referendum on the issue.

According to the Green Party media team, Sinkamba was reacting to calls by a team of PF members who featured on the Interactive Forum, Sunday June 10, 2018, and demanded for the removal of the FIC boss and her team for publicizing the 2017 Trends Report on anti-money laundering, terrorism financing and other financial crimes.

“We have looked at Section 5 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act of 2010, as well as other laws and we have not found any provision that stops FIC from disseminating its findings to the public. So, it goes without saying that, if the Act does not bar FIC from disseminating its findings, then it is not an offence for the Centre to do so. We have also looked at Article 5 of the Constitution of Zambia, which provides that all sovereign power is vested into the people, which is exercised through their elected representatives and appointed officials and that if no power is delegated to any elected or appointed official, then that power is retained by the people and exercised by the people themselves through the referendum,” the media team quoted Sinkamba as saying.

Sinkamba cautioned the demand by PF could prove costly as the country lacked financial resources to run a referendum.

“Now, in this instance, we have PF saying; ‘FIC exercised our power wrongly,’ and we are saying they exercised it rightfully. Then per Article 5 of the Constitution, this stalemate can only be resolved through the referendum. If President Lungu agrees with his members and proceeds to terminate the services of Mrs. Tshuma and the Board, without following the due process, which in this instance is holding a referendum on this question, then we will challenge the President’s decision in the Constitutional Court and petition the Court to order a referendum. This may be costly, and for this reason, we appeal to the President to exercise maximum restraint,” stated Sinkamba.