Former State House Permanent Secretary Emmanuel Chilubanama says he will not comment on the move by the Lusaka Province leadership to petition the PF central committee that he should be expelled from the ruling party.

On Wednesday, acting PF Lusaka Province chairman Paul Moonga presented a petition to PF secretary general Davies Mwila to expel Chilubanama from the ruling party.

The was after Chilubanama appeared on Prime TV where he allegedly said “President Edgar Lungu is fatigued and must go and start farming”.

When the PF raised concerns, he apologised to the ruling party for causing confusion through his remarks aired on Prime TV.

But after the footage was broadcast, Chilubanama alleged that Prime TV misquoted him, saying he never uttered the words

He, however, apologized to the provincial committee and the party for his utterances, which he said had landed in “wrong hands”.

“On that material day, I gave a personal interview, not on behalf of the party, to Prime TV, Muvi TV and The Mast [newspaper]. What I categorically said following a question that I was asked on the take of my President’s prolonged rule, I said and I wish to repeat, [and] Prime TV, please, report verbatim, I said, if the President so deems it fit that ‘I have ran my race, I have fought my fight and I wish to stand aside and pass on the mantle to someone else,’ I said I will respect that. If the boss says, ‘yes, gentlemen, I wish to go and do farming, I could have said, ‘I wish to go and do farming, basically so.’ Maybe it was the word and terminology used. And I wished and again I am saying before Prime TV that if you reported verbatim of what I said, we could not be where we are today,” complained Chilubanama.

But when called for a reaction on the Lusaka Province executive’s petition to have him expelled from the ruling party, and on whether he would proceed to sue Prime TV as he earlier threatened, Chilubanama declined to comment on the matter.