UPND president Hakainde Hichilema says he is astounded that instead of President Edgar Lungu discussing matters that affect Zambians economically at the UN general Assembly he was busy talking about issues that are concocted by his stooges.

He accused ‘christians’ for Lungu and PF media director Sunday Chanda of having concocted the homosexual issue as part of their propaganda against him.

Hichilema said for President Lungu, who was at the UN General Assembly, “to echo the concoction here, it’s a dry joke. That’s being too cheap.”

He said it was crooks who were driving all those crazy things. Hichilema urged Zambians not to fall prey to such.

“I do not support same sex relationships. I have never done it and will not do it. I do not agree with same sex relationships,” Hichilema said. “This is a falsehood. It’s ‘Christians’ for Lungu working with Chanda that created the story.”

Hichilema said the falsehood should be ignored as the nation had so many important matters to attend to.

“We want to address the falsehoods that are going on with regard to the issue of same sex marriage or relationships. PF is at it again, telling lies, complete lies with no grain of truth that I ever, anywhere in the world, in this country, this region, on our continent or elsewhere had a meeting where we discussed same sex marriages. Nowhere, never. Not even a question would have arisen in my many meetings here or abroad that this matter has arisen in the manner the PF expect it,” Hichilema said. “I am aware that a lot of people have spoken about it, many of our members have talked about it in many ways but I made a decision this morning that I will address this matter. What my colleagues in the party, outside the party, around the globe…network of friends, business colleagues around the world none of HH involvement whatsoever in what PF have said. So take it as one of those useless things that PF have been up to. Instead of giving citizens who are hungry food, they are feeding them with falsehood of this nature.”

Hichilema recalled that lies were concocted against president Michael Sata.

“The PF generated this story themselves but attributed it to respected international media organisation, in particular AFP and AP. We took liberty through our network to contact these two organisations to ask them if they have authored any story like that. I want to thank AFP and AP; they were quick in responding and confirming that they have not authored any story like that. They have not carried it on their print media, on their electronic media or anywhere, it does not exist. If you look carefully at the concocted story, check at the bottom, the name of the reporter they used, the alleged detail or indeed the inscription down there, you will see that it’s actually fake, you don’t have to be an expert [to determine this]. To be honest, PF have been caught with their pants down, PF are caught naked in the act. Once again as they did against president Michael Sata, they are at it again against HH but they have hit the wrong target. We don’t have such worthless waste of energy in our country.”

Hichilema said it had now become fashionable to talk about him and warned against fake Facebook accounts attributed to him.

He clarified that he only had one Facebook account and anything else was fake.

“It has become fashionable now to have fake Facebook accounts, they don’t exist but are created as part of the propaganda, most of it PF propaganda. On twitter, they are trying to create propaganda…. You know, to talk about HH now is the in thing, it’s a sexy thing to do, I mean not in the negative sense, it is the emotive thing to do, it’s a fashionable thing to do so they create fake Facebook accounts saying HH is giving loans through the bank, HH is doing this and that they will do all sorts of things even against yourself – some of you. I know they’re doing it to other renowned personalities around the world but as a country, we must deal with this matter as crooks are hiding behind it and false propaganda is driven on this platform. I want to indicate to you that do not fall prey to these things. For the record, I have one Facebook account, it has a blue tick, a blue mark, that’s the authentic one, anything else I do not know.”

Hichilema said he had reported the matter to police on several occasions but they were not acting.

He said he would not blame the police because protecting him and other citizens was not in the interest of PF.

“Yet they are supposed to protect all citizens when a crime is committed. This is actually a crime to create this kind of falsehood, putting fear in the minds of people with this falsehood. I want to categorically state my position; I do not support same sex marriage, I do not support same sex relationships, I have never done that, and I will never do that. It’s part of my personal value system in my genetic material, in my psyche, my philosophical way of thinking. I do not agree with same sex relationships. I do not agree that God was wrong to create Man and Woman, Male and Female,” Hichilema said. “I am not one of those who are shy to say it because anyone who wants to be a friend of HH must know what HH stands for on certain issues. This is one of the issues that I am not in support of this. I do not want to ridicule anybody but people are entitled to their opinion over matters.”

He added that what was being purported against him was cheap propaganda invented by people who were diseased.