FORMER PF deputy secretary general Mumbi Phiri says the UPND are looking for a charge to slap her with so that she can be arrested.

On Saturday, Vice-President Mutale Nalumango’s press aide Njenje Chizu refuted claims that mourners booed her during FDD leader Edith Nawakwi’s funeral, saying it was PF members, led by Phiri who did it.

“There were many tents but there was a tent where the Vice-President sat and all the opposition leaders. But then there was a tent which was opposite the tent of Her Honour the Vice-President where Mumbi Phiri, the PF cadres were seated. Mumbi Phiri is the one who led that team of cadres and they were very close to the grave. So when everybody went there to put some flowers, there came a time for the Vice-President, and the ones who started booing are not mourners, those are PF cadres who were led by Mumbi Phiri and she could be heard very clearly inciting the people. The cameras that were filming for some PF and opposition propagandists were very close, we didn’t push them away,” said Chizu.

“The noise was coming from the PF cadres and not the mourners. And if we wanted to disturb that noise, it’s possible, we could have allowed the UPND cadres to come but it was going to bring confusion. If you ask people who were there, even when the funeral ended, the Vice-President went there [to the grave] twice, the noise only came when she was putting the flower officially as the government representative. But she went the second time to put another flower as a former pupil of Kasama Girls, she went there and they were silent because the PF had already done their propaganda that the Vice-President was booed. But in the whole issue it was the PF, and not the mourners”.

But reacting to that in an interview, Sunday, Phiri said UPND should know that Zambians are fed up of their behaviour.

“They should just leave me alone. Out of their own making, they want to start blaming people, what is wrong with their heads? Are they okay? The way they troubled Edith Nawakwi, is it me who incited the prosecutor to take the case of Edith Nawakwi to her house? Is it me who incited the police to deny her medication when she was kept seven days in the cells? Is it me who charged her with sedition for her to be arrested for seven days? Was I there when Muchima was chased in Ikelengi? Was I part of that? They should open their eyes, they shouldn’t bury their heads in the sand. They should know that their time is up. Zambians are fed up with their behaviour which doesn’t make sense, which is not Zambian,” Phiri said.

“Don’t blame people for the confusion in your head. I’m sure they have missed me in cells, taking me to cells. Since they are claiming that it’s me who told the cadres, I’ve no doubt that they are looking for a charge to give me because they have missed arresting me. Come and pick me, in fact, I’ve also missed the cells”.

She said the only reason UPND cadres didn’t retaliate was because they were outnumbered.

“Their cadres came before the arrival of the Vice-President. And when the Vice-President was booed, those cadres couldn’t do anything because they saw the reaction, they were fewer than the people who were annoyed and they only retreated because they realised that they didn’t outnumber the people who were there and annoyed. That’s how they disappeared. Kasune was also booed at the funeral. Nalumango wasn’t like that. Can money or a job change my status quo? That’s what I wonder when I look at her because so far, at what we level God has taken me, people can attest to the fact that I’ve never changed my principles, I’ve never compromised my principles because of the job I’m doing, never. Principles are principles. She has lost the integrity which she built over a long period of time,” said Phiri.- News Diggers