Miles at crossroads

8
Miles Sampa (Deputy minister of Commerce)
Miles Sampa

A FULL bench of Supreme Court judges will today hear the appeal in which Matero member of Parliament Miles Sampa is contesting the Patriotic Front (PF) presidency.
Mr Sampa has filed two appeals in the Supreme Court in which he is dissatisfied with the two High Court rulings by judges Isaac Chali and Mugeni Mulenga.
Lawyers representing Mr Lungu said that when the matter came up before Supreme Court judge Munyinda Wanki, the judge said both appeals would be heard today.
According to the lawyers, the judge said he would not rule on the preliminary issues in objection that they raised but that the main issues would be heard today by a bench of Supreme Court justices.
Justice Chali had dismissed an application for interim injunction in which Mr Sampa was asking the court to restrain Edgar Lungu from holding out as president of the PF.
And Justice Mulenga had dismissed an application for Mr Sampa, Kasama member of Parliament Geoffrey Mwamba and Selemani Phangula who wanted to be joined in a matter in which she had delivered a consent judgment declaring Mr Lungu as president.
Mr Sampa, who has since been joined by Mr Mwamba and Mr Phangula, has appealed to the Supreme Court contesting the judgments.
The trio argued that Mrs Justice Mulenga misdirected herself when she held that they were incompetent to apply to be added as defendants.
They also argued that she had no inherent jurisdiction not to hear them on an inter parte application.
But PF national chairperson Inonge Wina has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss an appeal in which Mr Sampa is contesting the declaration of Edgar Lungu as party president.
Mrs Wina said there are two separate appeals in the Supreme Court pertaining to the matter of president of the PF, which Mr Sampa is contesting.
She said the parties in the matters are the same and that there is a possibility that the Supreme Court is likely to come to two conflicting decisions over the same matter.
And lawyers representing Mr Lungu contended that Mr Sampa’s appeal is incompetent because it includes Bridget Atanga as she is no longer secretary general of the PF.
The lawyers argued that the appeal is misconceived, incompetent and an abuse of the court because Mr Sampa is seeking to enforce his rights acquired from an illegal election.
They submitted that the appeal is bad for duplicity as the reliefs sought are part of contempt proceedings before Mrs Justice Mulenga.
She dismissed the application, saying that the trio could not re-open a matter which was fully determined and that the law is clear on how a matter can be challenged.

 

Zambia Daily Mail

8 COMMENTS

  1. BREAKING NEWS “A new disease has been detected in the zambian political leaders and it is called DESPERATION so people pliz watchout it is so deadly.

Leave a Reply to Kennedy Kalo Cancel reply