PF national youth chairman Kelvin Sampa says the PF youths who are calling for his removal have been sponsored by those who are after his position.

But PF Lusaka province secretary Kennedy Kamba has accused Sampa of failing to work with PF youths in the designated structures.

PF youths in Lusaka, Monday, presented a petition to Lusaka province chairman Paul Moonga demanding the dismissal of Sampa as youth chairperson of the party for allegedly failing to work with the youths.

But in an interview, Sampa said unruly youths wanted him dismissed because he stood up for discipline in the party.

“Those are false allegations. The only problem they are facing with me is that me I am a law abiding citizen and I want all the youths to follow that. You saw what transpired during the Youth Day celebrations where the youths within our party started stoning other youths that were on my vehicle and parts of my vehicle was damaged!” Sampa said.

“So the legal process has been taken and we cannot be allowing such a thing. If they can do that even in the presence of the President and they rise up to me, they can do that to anybody. So there must be law and order and if they think that the best way is to do all those demonstrations, it won’t work! Those that are facing the law they will be judged; they will be followed simple and straight forward!”

He said that the youths were being used by other people in the party who wanted the position of party youth chairperson.

“All I want to see is discipline in the party and if these youths have issues, they know where my office is and they have all my numbers let them call me. I know they have been sent by other people from the party who want this position but that won’t work. I was appointed by the President and he saw the reason why he appointed me,” he said.

When asked his connection with Innocent Kalimanshi who Moonga claimed was UPND, Sampa said Kalimanshi was PF and not UPND.

“Kalimanshi (Innocent) is PF, how can they paint him to be UPND? GBM went, he came back and he brought back people that he had gone with so what are they talking about?” asked Sampa.

But Kamba accused Sampa of working with youths who were not in the party structures and were insulting the top leadership of the party.

“There is no one who is accusing Sampa that he is working with the UPND; all what the party structures in Lusaka are saying is that he is working with parallel structures. People who are not in the party structures; people who were not elected those are the youths he is working with and as the party in Lusaka, we cannot allow that! The youths he was working with just two months ago were working with were insulting the President, they were insulting myself they were insulting the SG. The youths he is working with are not in any party structures, the youths he is working with are dividing the structures in Lusaka that is what the petition is saying. The petition is saying he is working with youths who were not elected in the party structures,” Kamba said.

“That cannot be allowed in Lusaka; there is no way he can be found with youths who have been insulting provincial leaders, insulting district leaders insulting the leadership of the President and the SG and you expect the youths to be quiet, that is what has costed Sampa. And we have tried to advise him; ‘the youths you are working with are not in the party’. Kalimanshi has applied to be a member of the party and that letter is with the Secretary General’s office. He is not yet PF, he is not yet cleared. And those are the youths he is using to insult senior leaders of the party. He should change his working culture and embrace those youths. He has failed to work with constituency chairmen in Lusaka. We have 12 constituencies in Lusaka, he has failed not even to work with one, can that be allowed allowed?”

Kamba further accused Sampa of misapplying funds that were meant for Youth Day celebrations.

“The other thing which has costed him is that he was given money to organize the party during the Youth Day celebrations; he opted to give money to the members of parliament who are not in the party structures. In some constituencies in Lusaka, we have a situation where members of parliament, they don’t want to work with party structures; and they [party structures] never benefited from K3,500 which was released by the secretariat. That also costed him! What he is supposed to do is to unite the youths in Lusaka and to follow the hierarchy of the party in terms of protocol.”