Amos Chanda will be key witness in State House corruption

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Special Assistant to the President for Press and Public Relations Amos Chanda addresses Journalists at State House on March 9,2015 -Picture by THOMAS NSAMA
Special Assistant to the President for Press and Public Relations Amos Chanda addresses Journalists at State House on March 9,2015 -Picture by THOMAS NSAMA

AMOS Chanda will be very useful to the next government when time comes for President Edgar Lungu to account for his deeds at State House, says 4th Revolution Party leader Eric Chanda.

On Thursday, State House sources revealed how President Lungu has been abusing Amos to pursue personal interests in the awarding of government contracts.

According to the State House sources, Amos has written numerous letters to contractors, banks and private companies on behalf of the Head of State who has now fallen out of favour with him.

“You people at The Post are not being fair with Amos because those scandals you are exposing to do with his letters are not his own making. Do you really think Amos has the power to write a letter to the DG [intelligence chief], giving him instructions without His Excellency [the President] telling him to do so? No!” the sources explained.

The sources said Chanda has been sacrificed by President Lungu after using him.

“Yes Amos has his own problems, but you can’t say these letters he is writing are out of his own making. Today, His Excellency has put Amos at a distance because he wants everybody working for him to consider his enemies as their own enemies. So if he speaks to anyone from The Post and he hears about it, it’s a big issue. But the guy has just been sacrificed, if you like. It’s not fair, you know,” the sources said.

But commenting on the revelation in an interview yesterday, Chanda, who is also secretary general of the Orange Alliance, said Amos would be useful in exposing President Lungu’s alleged illegal dealings.

“You tell this emerging dictator called Edgar Lungu that there shall be no sacrificial cows when it comes to fighting corruption when they leave office. We know that the office comrade Amos Chanda holds represents his President. Whatever comes out of his hand to put on paper, whatever comes out of his mouth, every Zambian, the whole world knows that it is from the President. There are some letters which were published where, he, Amos Chanda openly quoted that ‘I have been instructed by the President to advise so-and-so’ but to come today to try and turn away from Amos Chanda, I think that is not morally right and I think it is a source of confusion for this PF government,” Chanda said.

“For us, we are not worried. Whether they pick out Amos Chanda and put him as a sacrificial lamb or not, we know the target is the driver and that is comrade Edgar Lungu. Whatever is under the carpet shall be swept and if he is not careful in the way he is handling his press aide Amos Chanda, he will have himself to blame because if 4R today came into government or if Orange Alliance today came into government, if Amos Chanda is thrown away, we will turn him into a state witness and he will tell us everything about comrade Edgar Lungu from the toe up to the longest hair. So I just want to warn comrade Edgar Lungu that he should be careful with the way he should handle his people.”

He advised those working closely with President Lungu to be careful not to be used for his personal interests.

“And my humble appeal to these people working for such dictators is that they should be careful when they are being used. These are just jobs, they will be used like a broom and thrown away but they will remain in problems. So for Amos Chanda, I can only advise him that from now on, he must be careful with the way he deals with his boss who doesn’t know what he wants. For me really, Amos has been representing his boss quite well; why should his boss turn against him?” asked Chanda.

“But comrade Amos should not quit, he must remain strong and hang in there and watch what is happening inside. The Zambian people need him there. Because perhaps now there are plans to go into full-blown corruption. Perhaps Amos is trying to stop some of these things and Lungu feels that probably he will be a hindrance. There are all these speculations but we want to see change at State House because that is not where such things should be done. We have ministries where certain things should take place and not from State House. That is total abuse of office, so you tell comrade Lungu that even if he sacrifices comrade Amos Chanda, the abuse of authority will still be on him because he is the driver who has given instructions, who holds the steering for this government and whatever is happening during his tenure of office is his responsibility. So let him not trouble innocent souls; it will not work because those will be the state witnesses to expose what we need to know.”

The Post

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