UPND secretary general Stephen Katuka says President Edgar Lungu’s continued attacks on opposition political parties is an indication that he is afraid of UPND and is having sleepless nights.

During the opening of the PF provincial conference in Muchinga on Saturday, the Head of State said there was no alternative to the PF because the ruling party remained the people’s choice.

But in an interview, Katuka said President Lungu was having sleepless nights, which was why he had continued campaigning despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have a country where a government that is supposed to be leading the people is in the forefront in hanging the people. He can say there is no alternative, that is his opinion but I do not think he is sleeping, we are giving him sleepless nights. You have seen that he has been going round the country campaigning. You heard Mumbi Phiri saying others are quarantined while us we are campaigning. If he feels there is no opposition, let him wait, he will see what will happen to him come next year. The PF are not sleeping, you can see they are bringing issues of Nawakwi, they fund Nawakwi to rant, they fund this one to say this. Why are they doing that? It is fear because we have given them sleepless nights. They know on a fair and free credible election, they can’t win an election. The Zambian people are gone, they are no longer with them,” Katuka said.

“The Zambian people have already decided. Whether you say we are not campaigning, we don’t even need to campaign, the people have decided and they are with us. Those are the last kick backs of a dying horse. We have given them sleepless nights. That is why they are always talking about HH. If he is a nonentity, why are they worried about him? If there is no opposition, why is it that everyday the talk is HH everywhere? It means he is a factor. If he is not a factor, they will not talk about him. He has given them sleepless nights. Now they bring issues of privatization, who privitazises? Is IT not the government. It means all those who were in government were monkeys, they couldn’t see anything and they waited for 30 years to start thinking there must have been something wrong, it is desperation and fear. The Zambian people are not listening to that nonsense.”

He said the opposition would not stop talking about corruption.

“Who was Bowman Lusambo few years ago? Who was Edgar Lungu few years ago? Those are the people we should be following to find out how they have acquired their wealth. Don’t talk about people who have never held public office. People who have never held public have never had the access to public funds. We are looking at people who a few years could not even buy an underpants for themselves. We have had people who could not even buy themselves underpants a few years ago but today they have thousands of underpants. We should be asking how,” Katuka said.

“I don’t think we should even debate about corruption, there is completely no debate. People who are in public office now, they are driving big cars, they never drove a fiat, they never rode a bicycle, today they have 10 V8s. So where have they suddenly got them from?”

Katuka said it was unfortunate that President Lungu was disobeying COVID-19 regulations with his continued campaigns across the country.

“They are killing people with COVID-19 when they are going round. You see, he opened that bridge in Chawama, the following day the BIDs cases rose up meaning he was responsible for that. It is the President who is killing those people, not COVID-19. He has put regulations himself which he is not observing, so who is to blame? It is him. In Zambia you are aware that we had the gassing incident and who was responsible for that? Up to date, we don’t know,” said Katuka.