By Statt Writer
Former Luanshya District Commissioner Joel Chibuye will battle it out with Patriotic Front (PF) adopted candidate Nathan Chanda in the Roan parliamentary seat as an independent candidate in the August , 12, general election.
This is after Mr Chibuye had applied to contest the seat on the PF ticket but the adoption process did not go in his favour.
“As I am saying this, I will tell you that it is with a very heavy heart that I have taken this decision to contest the Roan seat as an independent candidate, because I love the PF very much and am a loyal and committed member of the PF. I have thought out this matter very well and arrived at this decision after a lot of consultation” Chibuye said.
Mr Chibuye, a known Luanshya and Businessman who said he still was a PF member disclosed that he had rejected calls from the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) enticing him to join their camp.
“I had a very busy Friday , I started receiving call from as early as 05:00 AM, with the first being a group of the UPND officials who came with an adoption certificate and tried to entice me to shift to their camp and I can’t agree to their proposal but they were very tactical and came with an adoption certificate. The second group came from the National Democratic Congress NDC who said they had no candidate saying I was the only person popular on the ground but I did not also take their offer” he said.
Mr Chibuye said his decision to contest the seat comes in the light of the calls from his supporters and the electorate demanding for his leadership.
“The people of Mpatamato comprising the clergy and various groups comprising women and youths started calling me saying the decision made by the central committee was not what they expected and according to them I was the person on the ground, the people in Mpatamato wanted to protest against the decision and I went there and met a group of people from sections 21 to 27 and their language was one and the same, they wanted me to contest as an independent candidate failure to which they were going to be very disappointed,” he said.
“I decided to go independent and it is a very difficult decision that I took but it is because of the people who came to me and asked me to stand and these are the people we depend on in terms of votes, the electorate so I succumbed to their pressure to go independent ” he said.
Mr Chibuye who pledged loyalty to President Edgar Lungu said he would campaign for the head of state and PF party leader in the August, 12, elections.
“The PF has offered me opportunities, I was given an opportunity to serve as DC by the President it was because of PF and I have served in several positions at the district level but there was not much that I could done because the people cried for my leadership of course the PF is still at my heart and I will canvass votes for the President Lungu, as I campaign for myself I will also be campaigning for the Republican and Party President Dr. Edgar Lungu” he noted.
Mr Chibuye was Luanshya District Commissioner from 2016 to 2019 when he was handpicked to contest the Roan parliamentary by-election in 2019 on the PF ticket, where he lost to NDC candidate Joseph Chishala.
The vacancy was caused by the prodigal Chishimba Kambwili who ditched the PF to head the NDC.
In Luanshya Constituency, immediate past MP Steve Chungu has already indicated that he is going solo too.
