Suspended Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Mutembo Nchito is deliberately misdirecting himself both at law and fact by insinuating that the Annel Silungwe led Tribunal currently probing him has been abolished by the amended Constitution, State House has said.
Special assistant to the President for press and public relations Amos Chanda has said State House would therefore ignore Mr Nchito’s letters to President Edgar Lungu demanding that the Tribunal be disbanded because the Head of State had nothing to do with the tribunal and its proceedings.
Mr Chanda said Mr Nchito should instead address his grievances to the tribunal chairperson Justice Annel Silungwe who is leading the investigative wing because President Lungu was not going to interfere with its proceedings.
Mr Nchito has written to the President asking him to dissolve the tribunal because according to him, the repeal of Article 58 of the Constitution had abolished the tribunal and its continued sitting was therefore a breach of the Constitution.
On February, 23, Mr Nchito wrote to President Lungu asking him to disband the tribunal and his letter was published in the Post Newspaper on 29th of the same month.
The suspended DPP wrote to the Head of State pleading that the tribunal should be stopped because according to him, it was illegal.
But Mr Chanda said in an interview yesterday that Mr Nchito was attempting to deliberately misguide himself and the nation by imputing that the amended Constitution had rendered the tribunal defunct.
He advised the suspended DPP to concentrate on defending himself instead of asking President Lungu to intervene by way of stopping the proceedings.
Mr Chanda said the President was not going to respond to Mr Nchito’s letters because they were not correctly addressed and should instead seek the advice of the tribunal on the matter.
“The President has nothing to do with the Tribunal and until and unless its mandate
for which it was constituted has been accomplished, it will not be dissolved.
The circumstances of dissolving a tribunal are well known and it will dissolve naturally after its mandate has been accomplished. So from the point of Constituting the Tribunal, the President has nothing to do with it and Mr Nchito should address his grievances to the Tribunal. As for us, it does not matter how many times he is going to write his letters, we shall not respond and will continue to ignore him,” he said.
Mr Chanda said the tribunal was an investigative process and could not dissolve at the whim of Mr Nchito.
He said the suspended DPP should therefore resist the temptation of dragging State House into the matter.
Apart from writing to President Lungu to ask him to dissolve the tribunal, Mr Nchito has gone to the High Court seeking judicial review over his insistence that Justices Annel Silungwe, the chairman of the tribunal, Mathew Ngulube and Ernest Sakala who are members should halt the proceedings.
Mr Nchito has in the past disparaged Justices Silungwe, Ngulube and Sakala branding the former Chief Justices as conflicted and incompetent. Recently, the Supreme Court ordered that the tribunal should go ahead and that the suspended DPP should continue to appear before it.
In his second letter to President Lungu published in the Post Newspaper, Mr Nchito claimed that the Head of State and himself (Nchito) would be held culpable of breaching the Constitution if the tribunal was not going to be disbanded.
Nchito quoted articles in the constitution on which he is basing his argument, which article or section is Chanda using??..And you claim state house has no hand in this.
@Muna. There is provision in the amendment in dealing with existing and ongoing claims. In no way is his case falling ‘inbetween the seats of the law.’ Niche to is misguided in his conduct.
Oh! This guy Amos has resurrected. He has been thinking deeply about life after August 11 in Chimbokaila.
Mr Lungu has done enough wrongs. But on this one, he is perfectly in line with the law. All the injustices that the Zambian people have endured at the hands on Nchito can never be punished enough – only God can.
And i m sure HH is not that stupid to be duped by the “crocodile tears” from Nchito. Mmembe, Nchito and Sata are among the worst enemies of Zambia – my opinion
Nichito should more than concentrate on his defence, in addition he ought to consider seriously confessing and letting the law punish him for his misdeeds against the people of Zambia.
I expect writing to the President is silently coded to suggest some blackmail on facts we may not be aware of.
He needs to taste judgement, the quicker the better for him, he’ll be comfortable in hard labour jail (life sentence), sooner than he knows.
Iam extremely disappointed with Edgar Lungu and his personal assistant on their position regarding the legality of Silungwe’s tribunal.The new constitution is very clear on the procedure of removing constitutional bearers that include the position of DPP.
Silungwe and his disgraced former justices in the name of Corrupt Ngulube and Ernest will be prosecuted immediately after the change of Govt in August for breaching the constitution.
Amos and Lungu got a lot from RB. hence now the decision of sacrificing MUTEMBO.
Ba SATA ,you left us with a wrong person who has completely destroyed that you built.Mutembo was somehow the right handyman for Sata but look how Lungu is destroying the people for SATA.
VIVA NCHITO
MULICHIPUBA, NAME YOURSELVES AFTER TONGA NAMES AND NOT OUR BEMBA TOWN NAMES. YOU HAVE DISGUISING YOURSELVES WITH BEMBA, CHEWA AND NGONI NAMES AS IF THEY ARE THE ONLY NAMES THAT MATTER IN ZAMBIA. PLEASE USE TONGA NAMES SO THAT MASSES CAN JUDGE YOU OBJECTIVELY.
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT LAW WHEN COMPETENT MEN AND WOMEN HAVE CLEARLY EXPLAINED THAT THE OLD CONSTITUTION IS NOT IN CONFLICT WITH THE AMENDED CONSTITUTION THEREFORE NCHITO TRIBUNAL CAN STILL CONTINUE.
YOU
Let us hope Heaven won`t ignore Mr Nchito also . Christ want all people with burdens to go to Him for freedom
and peace . We should not be deceived by earthly positions,power and prosperity. Mighty Jesus has power to remove us from all evil and remove from us all evil too. This is a blessed life and it comes by grace through faith which comes by hearing the word of God Almighty.
Especially when they confess, show remorse AND make restitution to their victims. Let’s not forget.
You are correct Patriot Abroad. Thank very much.
Pleasure !
It would have been better for Lungu’s legal advisor to respond to Nchito’s letter than a journalist who knows nothing about law.
That’s a spokesman, speaking for state house.
THATS WHAT IGNORANCE CAN DO. WHO IS THE SPOKES PERSON FOR STATE HOUSE???
Political mischief by Edgar and Rupiah, his friend. Is it not him who constituted the tribunal? How come he has nothing to do with it now that he signed Mutembo off the hook, to the tune of K 4.8 million. Edgar needs to address the matters that Mutembo raised rather than burying his head in the sand. We can’t have incompetent people at State House masquerading as lawyers when they can’t even cite one Act of the law! VIVA HH…VIVA UPND.
Nchito might be DPP in future and he will handle your cases… Kikikikikikikiki.
This guy is a time waster and indeed he is buying time because if he is innocent, he would have wished the tribunal to conclude its business like yesterday but because he knows what he did, he will try by all means to slow down the process hoping that may be there will be change of govt. later this year ( which won’t happen) so that he can be let off the hook. This bulky ***** must face the temerity of his actions.
Change in August 2016 is coming sir. Just check the skies if you are not blind. Mutembo will bounce back as DPP whether you like it or not.
No way Nchito kwisa iwe ka Lucy, ECL is bouncing back.
In politics nothing is so certain. Both UPND and PF should not live in utopia. Only time will tel.
How come now every person with a case looks an angel in the eyes of UPND fellows? They are defending everyone from Masebo to Post and ZRA taxes and now Nchito! It is becoming interesting!
Amos is also misguiding himself. The Chikopa tribunal never accomplished its mandate before it ‘naturally’ dissolved. What the Nchito letters require is a legal opinion not the whims of one Amos. Mutembo is using the inept attitude of state house to drag this whole thing forever.
Useless tribunal-let the matter go to court to determine the legaity of the tribunal-the State even used underhand methods through corrupt Supreme Court to quash the hearing-It is like the whole matter has been determined already by the corrup former judges-Rubbish indeed
Mutembo has cited the law-please Ba Egdar you are a lawyer-cite the law
Zambia is ruled by laws with the Constitution Supreme. Nchito has cited the law and in any case let him be heard by the Courts so that the incompetent Govt lawyers can argue their case-This tribunal should not be tied to Edgar’s life as a President-They didn’t want the tribunal to heard openly when they supported the locking up of Mutembo in Chongwe with the POLICE disobeying court orders. Truly Ba Edgar is not a lawyer or Presidential material but a corrupt and vindictive fellow-Ma Rubbish. We are not blind but seeing everything cleary.As Zambians we know who is truly corrupt
Ba Amos, you are so cheap with your master-what ever you are doing will undone in August-4months away
Why writing to the president let him go to court:
The President is the one who appointed the tribunal iwe Riff raff. He did so Constitutionally.
Administratively all correspondence in writing must be answered in writing. Ignoring a written correspondence from a government official is not administrative practice. No wonder we have problems in Zambia. ‘Save Zambia’.
Why not prove yourself innocent by going through the process rather than start dragging the state President into your cobweb. From the gymnastics being displayed one is bound to think you are trying to run away from something.
The Tribunal which he called ‘defunct’ responded to his issues and incase he is trying to ignore the provisions in the Constitution that ‘seating’ proceedings or indeed ongoing matters would not fall away unless otherwise so declared….Of course we are all saddened that the Special Assistance for Press to the President has responded in the manner he has as he needn’t have. On the other the Suspended DPP, ought to have known better to write directly to the President when he could have written to the same body he is assuming ought to hear him, which body Mathew Ngulube chairs. To this end we can only say much as he entered a nolle in his own case he cannot now try and stay a decision of the Supreme Court through a letter