The United Party for National Development(UPND) can’t betray vice president Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba because of his tremendous contribution to the party in the last disputed elections, assures  party  Secretary General Steven Katuka.

Katuka has described as nonsense on-line media stories that Mwamba popularly known as GBM is about to be replaced with expelled Roan Member of Parliament Chishimba Kambwili.

The Patriotic Front(PF) friendly blogs have gone on rampage,  publishing strings of articles, suggesting that GBM will soon be sidelined.

They claim that the largest opposition party is positioning Kambwili for the position of vice president and later on Hichilema’s Running Mate in the 2021 General Elections.

The PF publications are alleging that the UPND hierarchy is not happy with the performance of GBM  in the last elections because he failed to shake the PF strongholds in Northern, Luapula and Copperbelt provinces. despite being bemba.

But when reached for a comment, Katuka who appeared calm said the party can never betray GBM and replace him easily because of his tremendous  contributions.

He said the UPND ran a  very expensive campaign in the last elections courtesy of Hichilema and his Running Mate GBM.

“First and foremost, Kambwili has not approached the party for a job. All we are hearing is  that together with Musenge (Mwenya former PF Chimwemwe MP) they are planning to form a political party. If anything, UPND has two offices of  vice presidents of which one of  them is vacant following the resignation of Dr Canisius Banda. So it is the position that is up for grabs not the one Dr Mwamba is occupying ,” Katuka said, ” If you look at the 2016 election statistics critically, UPND performed very well in Northern Province were our vice president comes from. The results we marshaled in Northern province last year are more than what the party has been getting in previous elections. We are ever grateful to GBM because some people who were brainwashed by the tribal tag placed on us by our enemies voted for UPND because of his(GBM’s) involvement ,” Katuka said.

And Katuka said it is nonsensical for PF on-line media to suggest that GBM gate crashed at the press conference  that hosted Hichilema and Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane in South Africa.

Katuka said he is speaking with authority on the matter because he is the one who was handling invitation letters for the UPND officials.

“That is nonsense for lack of a better term. GBM was invited for the meeting which  coincided with his medical check up in South Africa. I spent the whole day making contacts for booking arrangements. I gave him  president Hichilema’s flight schedule. That is how he linked up with the president,” Katuka said.