I’m ready to fight for what is right – Sampa

MILES Sampa says he is ready to fight for what is right over the Patriotic Front presidency. Sampa, whose application to have Edgar Lungu restrained from posing as PF president was dismissed by Lusaka High Court judge-in-charge Isaac Chali yesterday afternoon, said justice must prevail over the matter. Lusaka High Court judge Mungeni Mulenga earlier yesterday recused herself from hearing Sampa’s case brought before her on Wednesday morning where he sought an injunction to restrain Lungu from posing as PF president. Sampa, who was elected PF president on Monday, has argued that the purported election that chose Lungu through ‘a show of hands’ in Kabwe was inconsequential. But the same Wednesday, judge Mulenga granted Wina’s application to have Atanga substituted with Davis Chama as PF secretary general before she granted a consent judgment declaring Lungu as PF president, which was entered into by Wina and Chama as opposing parties in the matter.

Earlier on Monday, Wina sought an injunction to restrain PF secretary general Bridget Atanga and others from announcing another presidential candidate, except Lungu, which judge Mulenga granted in the early hours of the day, but Sampa countered with another application for an injunction against Lungu. However, when Sampa’s matter came up before judge Chali yesterday afternoon after judge Mulenga recused herself, it was thrown out without costs but with leave to appeal. Judge Chali, in his ruling, said Sampa had filed an application late after the consent judgment had already been passed. “Therefore, I find that by bringing a separate action on a matter which has already been adjudicated upon by the High Court, the plaintiff has abused the process of the court. I further find that allowing this case to proceed any further would bring the administration of justice into disrepute among right-thinking people,” said judge Chali. “This action is therefore dismissed.” But Sampa said he was ready to fight for what is right and that his lawyers were by press time preparing an appeal to the Supreme Court.

“This is a matter that I am ready to die for. We are ready to appeal this matter because the court did not hear us at all. The ruling was passed in our absence. We are definitely appealing, and I will follow it up regardless of the time it takes to have the case concluded,” Sampa said. He said his team would follow the right procedure to appeal the matter in the higher court. “Everything is being done right now (yesterday afternoon) to appeal to the Supreme Court so that this matter reaches a conclusive end,” said Sampa. Earlier yesterday, Sampa, Geoffrey Mwamba and Captain Selemani Banda had asked judge Mulenga to join them as interveners to the matter where she declared Lungu as the duly-elected Patriotic Front president on Wednesday. Sampa further asked judge Mulenga to combine all the court matters involving the PF presidency before her on grounds that the issues are connected. The trio yesterday afternoon filed in the Lusaka High Court an affidavit in support of summons to be joined to the matter before judge Mulenga as interveners.

Sampa, Mwamba and Capt Banda in their application to be joined to the above matter argued that judge Mulenga’s consent judgment upheld the election of Lungu when none of the nine other presidential contenders participated in that election. “The other intending interveners and I are affected by the said consent by reason of the aforementioned,” Sampa submitted through his lawyer Makebi Zulu. And in another affidavit in support of inter partes summons for leave for an order of consolidation of action, he submitted that the two matters before judge Mulenga arose from a series of the same transaction and that there were some connections of law and fact that arose in both of them. Sampa therefore applied for the two matters to be consolidated into one to avoid a multiplicity of actions. – See more at: http://www.postzambia.com/news.php?id=4424#sthash.EAT7Y8ys.dpuf