HAKAINDE Hichilema has asked President Edgar Lungu to immediately remove his infrastructure development minister Ronald Chitotela from government to allow for fair prosecution and adjudication of the corruption charges levelled against him.

Meanwhile, UPND members of parliament, Roan PF’s Chishimba Kambwili and an independent legislator, yesterday walked out of parliament in protest against Chitotela’s continued stay in office while in court facing corruption charges.

In a statement yesterday, Hichilema stated that the minister must be removed for justice to prevail.

“If Mr Lungu does not remove Chitotela, the public will have to believe the view going around that Chitotela cannot be removed because he is an agent of Mr Lungu in the massive corruption going on at that ministry,” he stated.

“We state so because Mr Lungu’s defence of those facing corruption charges clearly shows that he too is a beneficiary of the same but he must be stopped by citizens. We cannot allow a situation where someone facing corruption charges is flying the pride of our Zambian flag representing the country at both local and international levels.”

Hichilema argued that “clearly, Mr Lungu’s conduct shows that the arrest of Chitotela is just a public relations show whose aim is to hoodwink the international community and our citizens.”

“There are several people who have been removed from their positions on mere suspicion of financial embezzlement or other misconduct and are awaiting their cases to be disposed of,” he stated. “We are also aware of grand corruption by senior PF government officials which is depleting our country’s funds. This too must come to an end but if not, all those involved in this corruption syndicate will sooner rather than later be held accountable.”

Hichilema appealed to the Anti-Corruption Commission and other agencies to be relentless in their pursuit to protect public property and finances from criminals masquerading as government officials or PF agents.

“And when in government, we will even empower these bodies to operate independently and safeguard our country’s resources,” stated Hichilema.

Last week, President Lungu refused to fire Chitotela.

He wondered what such action had to do with him.

“He’s a suspect. And in their wisdom they [ACC] chose to arrest him, so what should I do? We are fighting corruption…so they have to prove in the courts of law and I hope they give him a chance to prove himself…but you see what I don’t want is to politicise the fight against corruption,” President Lungu said.

“Remember how I lost Chishimba Kambwili? They came to me, they said he’s corrupt. I said investigate him. They investigated him. I don’t know whether they said he’s not cooperating. ‘He’s insulting us’ – you know he’s very vulgar, I’m sorry to say that but he is vulgar, he can be vulgar. They were all crying in my office, I said what do I do? In my judgment…[I saw it fit to] remove him. I removed him. Chishimba, up to now we are waiting for the ACC, the DEC and all those who brought allegations against him to prove their allegations in a court of law. So you want me to lose Chitotela on that basis again? I’m saying no. I’ll give them leeway to investigate and arrest, bring to court the culprit. But I won’t interfere. I’ll even fund them to do their operations but those who are calling for the removal of honourable Chitotela now, I say no, give me space please.”