. MWAMBA

By NORMA SIAME –
KASAMA Central Member of Parliament Geoffrey Mwamba’s exit from the ruling party is imminent after the Patriotic Front (PF) Northern Province disciplinary committee recommended that he be expelled.
The PF disciplinary committee convened a meeting at which Mr Mwamba was expected to exculpate himself over a medley of charges leveled against him and recommended for his expulsion to the Provincial Executive Committee.
This comes on the backdrop of a petition signed by party officials seeking the Kasama Central MP’s expulsion from the party.
Mr Mwamba when contacted said he would comment later.
Mr Mwamba, who was last month suspended from the party by the provincial executive, refused to appear before the committee and allegedly that he did not pick calls from disciplinary committee members who wanted to ask him if he would be present at the hearing held at the party offices.
Mr Mwamba, however, opted to speak through Radio Mano in the morning where he said via telephone that he would not travel to Kasama for a meeting based on media reports.
When prodded, the provincial executive maintained tha  the letter summoning Mr Mwamba to Kasama had been delivered to the National Assembly office in his constituency.
Provincial secretary Everest Chela said claims by Mr Mwamba that he had not received the letter to appear before the disciplinarily committee were not true.
Mr Chela maintained that as far as the party was concerned, the letter was delivered through the Kasama Central constituency office.
Disciplinary committee chairperson Chomba Chipili, who spoke to the Press shortly after the meeting, said apart from the letter, further efforts were made to get in touch with Mr Mwamba.
“We were calling him this morning before convening the meeting but he was not responding,” Mr Chipili said.
Mr Mwamba is facing a number of charges ranging from allegedly de-campaigning fellow party officials, disloyalty to the party and the President and bringing the party’s name into disrepute.
The aftermath of the meeting was, however, characterised by drama after Gender Deputy Minister Obius Chisala arrived at the party office where he questioned how and who constituted the committee.
Mr Chisala charged that he was not informed of the meeting despite being the vice-provincial secretary of the party.
Before the situation could degenerate into a verbal confrontation as other party officials begun accusing him of having vested interests in the issue, Mr Chipili took Mr Chisala aside where he explained the situation.
“This is just a sub-committee. We will forward our resolutions to the executive committee whose meeting you can attend if you want,” Mr Chipili said.
Mr Chisala, who said he understood, called on party members to do things in unison so that everyone could know what was happening and move at the same pace for the sake of unity.