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HUMAN rights campaigner Brebner Changala has expressed surprise at the seeming desperation by suspended Director of Public Prosecutions Mutembo Nchito to prevent his probe on allegations of misconduct.
Mr Changala said yesterday that Mr Nchito pleaded with him to write President Edgar Lungu to withdraw the letters he wrote asking for a tribunal to have the DPP probed over his alleged illegalities.
He said this in a statement yesterday and added that there is a serious conspiracy behind the scenes to discredit and distort the truth surrounding the Tribunal, by Mr Nchito and The Post newspaper.
“I am surprised with the amount of desperation that Mr Mutembo Nchito is exhibiting over his impending Tribunal hearing. The last few days have been characterised by Mr Nchito and Mr M’membe of The Post Newspapers Limited trying all sorts of tactics to try and avoid the Tribunal,” he said.
Mr Changala said Mr Nchito’s desperation led him to request for a clandestine meeting at which his aim was to plead with Mr Changala to ‘save’ him.
Mr Nchito allegedly requested that the meeting be at Inter-Continental Hotel but later insisted that they meet in the hotel car park and take a drive in Mr Nchito’s vehicle in order to keep the meeting secret.
“Once inside his car, he started pleading his case to me and telling me that he had acted in certain cases on instructions and the actions being attributed to him were not his own decisions.
“He talked about the nolles, the debts of Zambian Airways, what was owed to Finance Bank Limited, his relationship with Fred M’membe and many other things,” Mr Changala said.
He said the trip took close to three hours and that Mr Nchito passionately tried to plead his case to him.
“I was surprised as to why he wanted to plead the case to me instead of the Tribunal in order to clear his name. The reason why he was pleading his case to me became clear after he handed me a dossier which he stated, explained away all the charges,” he said.
Mr Nchito also showed him, but did not leave me with, copies of documents and letters he said would help his case.
“Mr Nchito pleaded that I write a letter to the President withdrawing my letters seeking for a tribunal to be set up and that I should state that it had now come to my knowledge that all the charges against him were unfounded.
“As I was frankly very surprised by this plea from Mr Nchito, I told him that I could not do such a thing without talking to my lawyers,” he said.
According to Mr Changala, at this point Mr Nchito pleaded with him not to talk to his lawyers about the meeting because the details were strictly to remain between the two of them.
Mr Changala said he decided not to write the letter the DPP was pleading for because this would be subverting the work of the Tribunal.
It is for the Tribunal to investigate the allegations and make their findings and not for him to supplant their authority. He said it was soon after the meeting he got a press query from The Post where similar issues to the discussion he earlier had with the DPP, were canvassed.
Mr Changala said the recording of the interview with the newspaper that was released was an attempt to deflect attention from the charges that Mr Nchito is supposed to answer and focused on allegations which do not form any part of the six charges he faces.
The recording was not released in full and did not include the questions he was asked, to reflect the spirit of the interview.
“Mr Nchito should therefore not hope that the Tribunal will go away by either threatening, scandalising or even asking me to write a letter of ‘exoneration’ of the DPP. The only body at this stage that can exonerate him is the Tribunal,” he said.
Times of Zambia
