PF member of the central committee Raphael Nakacinda has accused Justice Minister Mulambo Haimbe of blackmailing former president Edgar Lungu’s press aide Amos Chanda to meet with President Hakainde Hichilema so that he releases information to be used against the former Head of State.

But Haimbe has dispelled the allegations saying they were malicious.

Meanwhile, Chanda said Haimbe has neither blackmailed him nor arranged any meeting between himself and President Hichilema.

In a video which circulated on Tuesday evening, Nakacinda accused President Hichilema of seeking information to implicate Lungu.

“We have just come to learn that, zooming with the binoculars, Mr Haimbe who is a Minister of Justice has been manipulating and blackmailing the former press aide to president Edgar Lungu in the name Amos Chanda offering that he needs to go and try and tell a story to President HH tomorrow, to try and appease him because the President is desperate and grasping for some information he can try and use to implicate the former president,” said Nakacinda.

“So, Amos Chanda is scheduled for an appointment tomorrow coached to go and say some lies against the former president or indeed other colleagues within the government that they served together. It is very unfortunate that the government of today, the new dawn government if not new dark government is using blackmail, using underhand methods, fraud, including torture to try and get some kind of information which will basically end up to be false.”

But reacting to Nakacinda’s claims, Haimbe said Nakacinda merely had a bone to chew with him

“It’s absolutely malicious and lies as I am currently in Cape Town. Have been here since Sunday. The people of Zambia need to understand that Mr Nakacinda is looking for political mileage and relevance in a situation where quite clearly the opposition are quickly falling out of favour with the people of Zambia. I base this fact that I am not even in the country now. It is complete and utter malice that those statements are being made. I also want to alert the people of Zambia to the fact that Mr Nakacinda actually has a bone to chew with me from the time that part of the legal team that represented the Nevers Mumba faction in the MMD wrangle and we dealt Mr Nakacinda and his colleagues a severely fatal blow legally and knocked them out of the MMD leadership. And from then he continues to have a bone to chew,” Haimbe said.

He called on Zambians to reject such a kind of leadership.

“That is the sort of person you the people of Zambia have been exposed to. Please take whatever he says with a pinch of salt. It is not based on facts. It is based on malice and trying to avenge generally the losses that he and his colleagues in the PF have suffered at the hands of the UPND. So, whenever he has an opportunity, he dreams up these things and puts them forward as though they are true. And that should be the basis why the people of Zambia should say no to this sort of leadership where rather than providing proper checks and balances, other people decide to involve themselves in malicious falsehoods. We will not be taken aback by this; we will continue to solder. Our duty is to serve the people of Zambia,” said Haimbe.

Meanwhile, Chanda said Nakacinda made unprovoked allegations.

“I have seen on social media, a disturbing video by Rapheal Nakacinda making unprovoked, scurrilous allegations imputing an improper relationship between me one the one side and President Hakainde Hichilema and Minister of Justice Malambo Haimbe on the other. These senseless attacks against my personal and professional reputations represent some of the darkest forms of evil one can willy-nilly manufacture against an innocent person. Hon Haimbe has neither blackmailed me nor arranged any meeting for me with President Hichilema. In my entire life, I have neither spoken nor met honorable Haimbe. I do not, as falsely alleged, have any pending appointment with the President today nor in the foreseeable future,” Chanda said.

He said he was unaware of any criminal charges against Lungu.

“I am completely unaware of any criminal charges that former President Edgar Lungu may be facing for me to testify against him on such matters. No one in the UPND has asked me about any alleged indiscretions or criminal behavior by any member of the previous administration. Therefore, any such fears are self-inflicted nightmares about things that may or may not have happened. It is therefore mischievous in the extreme, and brazenly evil that Raphael Nakacinda, a documented perennial fraudster, has elected to front me in his bid to perpetuate his parasitic relationship with the former president,” he said.

Chanda said he had sought legal advice on the said video.

“It is unfortunate that Raphael Nakachinda, a patently dishonest person, seems to have carved for himself a successful career out impugning the reputations of others. But I want to serve notice that he, and his sponsors won’t enjoy any fruits of evil out of their malicious mention of me, now or in the future. In the meantime, I have sought legal advice on this libelous video which he widely circulated last night, February 8,2022,” said Chanda.