By Staff Reporter
Colonel Panji says he does not hate former president Edgar Lungu, but insists that a person is judged by the company they keep, saying the former president was surrounded by “dubious characters” who must be investigated and that if potential wrong doing pointed towards him, he must also be punished.
Calling in to Daily Revelation to react to former Defence minister Davies Chama’s assertions against him that he hated president Lungu with a passion, and that Zambians who were asking for Lungu to be investigated were malicious and did not mean well as bygones should be allowed to be bygones, Col Panji said Lungu was surrounded by “dubious characters” who must be investigated and must not be allowed to go scott-free if investigations pointed towards him.
“Look at the people people who surrounded him. A person is judged by the company you keep. He had dubious people with dubious characters around him. What did they do? They must be investigated. If there is a link the former president must explain,” he said.
Col Panji said it must not be lost on Zambians that president Lungu presided over a corrupt and nepotistic government, including questionable ‘heaven on earth’ wealth, while the people in Chibolya were wallowing in abject poverty. He raised the questionable acquisition of the 42 fire tenders at $1 million each, the procurement of ambulances at inflated prices and the sharing of Forest 27 and Chimtengo, among other scandals, which he said all happened under the former president’s watch.
“First and foremost I don’t hate anybody as a person. What we, as every Zambian should, is dislike the corruption and nepotism that goes around in our country, and as president who is commander in chief, head of the security services. Any President like Hakainde is responsible for anything that goes on in this country,” Col Panji said. “Therefore we the Zambians who are the employers of these people ask for accountability from the people that we employ. A president is not self-employed. He’s employed by the Zambians who every five years they choose a new employee. So what we are asking for is within our right.”
Col Panji said Zambians must not fear to ask for accountability whenever they see something wrong, including by previous presidents, saying he has always hated corruption as he was transferred from the Ministry of Defence as deputy minister under late president Michael Sata’s reign, after he reported the recruitment of PF cadres into the Zambia Air Force (ZAF) to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
“We have in this country where we have seen projects that have not been finished but monies have been paid. We have in this country, the only country where a billboard cost $39,000. A billboard in the rural areas! These are the questions we want our president to clear himself,” said Colonel Panji. “We have got forest 27 which they have shared amongst themselves. Yet if you go to our people in Chibolya are living in absolute poverty. If Forest 27 was given to the people of Chibolya and houses where built no one would be talking.”
He said Zambians experienced a phenomenon where under president Lungu’s reign, while majority of citizens were becoming poor, those in leadership became gluttonously rich, and where mere cadres without any discernible income were flashing around world class properties and cars.
He said right now the medicines for chemotherapy were costing around K4000, but such medicines were not stocked in hospitals and in the process condemning the majority poor to their graves, while the leaders were fattening themselves at the same time.
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