Chihana threatens to expel Aford ‘rebels’
Alliance for Democracy (Aford) President Enoch Chihana is further tearing apart the already destroyed party and has said the party’s members who boycotted the controversial convention held last week have the fate of their party’s membership “at his mercy.”
Some of the prominent officials who boycotted the national convention held at Marymount Secondary School in Mzuzu are former acting president, Godfrey Shawa, former secretary general, Khwauli Msiska, former Publicity Secretary Dan Msowoya and a newcomer and presidential candidate, UK based Sad Kaseka Munthali.
Chihana elected in not credible polls as Aford leader in news conference Mzuzu on Wednesday: “They are nothing. But we are open for discussions if these disgruntled members want to talk.”.
The group is in the process of seeking legal redress to have the outcome of the convention nullified.
“Except for Khwauli Msiska because as an Aford MP, he is a bonafide member unless he decides to resign. But for others it’s a different story,” Chihana said.
The Minister of Sports and Culture, son to late Chakufwa Thom Chihana, the iconic figure of Aford, told reporters that Msowoya has always caused confusion in Aford since his Father’s hey days as Aford Czar.
“He has been issuing statements to the media attacking us. Worse still he was just writing those statements without consulting anyone in the party. Is that man normal?” he asked the crowd, which also included the newly elected Aford NEC and Mzuzu based supporters.
Chihana said he was not surprised that Msowoya ran away saying there was no delegate who was going to vote for him because “none has ever voted for him since Aford started holding conventions” describing him as a destitute.
“All the positions he has held were through co-option. How can people vote for somebody who cannot afford a bottle of Fanta for himself or a delegate? Somebody who does not attend funerals for party members or live amicably with neighbours?” he queried.
Msowoya refused to comment when contacted saying Chihana was running away from real issues.
This is not the first time Chihana had clashed with Msowoya since assuming the post Aford National Chairperson and now President.
In June this year, Chihana took a swipe at Msowoya likening him to a ‘vuvuzela’ horn that produces a continuous rattling sound after Msowoya issued a statement against President Joyce Banda’s parallel farm input subsidy programme.
In the statement, Msowoya argued that coming up with a parallel farm input subsidy programme was unconstitutional and urged the President to instead introduce a universal farm input subsidy programme.
”What is unconstitutional about the president creating her own farm input subsidy programme? Dan Msowoya as publicity secretary should not just behave like a Vuvuzela that can be blown at will and make noise,” Chihana said.
Chihana sounding militant also challenged them to either go to Court to seek redress if they felt that they were short changed or source funds for another convention.
“I will trounce them again because the Court does not give votes,” he boasted.
He said the only crime was that he triumphed saying calls to challenge his victory were a “political miscalculation”
“Otherwise I was not in organising committee. By virtue of being an Aford MP I was an automatic delegate. They should sue themselves if they decide to go that way otherwise a reasonable lawyer will taint his CV by representing them,” Chihana said.
He said (NARC), People’s Development Movement (PDM) and National Patriotic Front were barred because “it is political, morally and constitutionally wrong for these parties to participate in the Aford convention and contest for positions”
Both Chihana and Secretary General Christopher Ritche described the alliance that Aford and (NARC), People’s Development Movement (PDM) and National Patriotic Front forged as “childish” because it was negotiated without all the parties seeking mandate from their members.
“There was no legal documentation and nothing in writing. It was just word of mouth hence not binding,” Ritche said.
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