HH RESPONSIBLE FOR EX-BP EMPLOYESS WOES, INSISTS CHIPALO

STOP attacking victims and ask Hakainde Hichilema to confirm or deny his involvement in the companies that manage the Saturnia Regna Pension Trust Fund and which  allegedly misused the BP Zambia Pension funds in August 1999, Expendito Chipalo has said. Mr Chipalo said he had noted with great concern the negative comments on social media directed against him over  his complaints that UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema and his business partners were involved in the mismanagement of pension funds from the BP Zambia Final Salary Staff Pension Scheme.  In a statement, Mr Chipalo said he did not hold any personal grudge or motive to attack Mr Hichilema, but merely stated the truth which he would repeat over and over again until he died or when the pensioners were paid their benefits in full. He said Mr Hichilema and his friends were given hard cash to manage for the pensioners and have statements which show acknowledgement of the receipt of the money by the managers of the Saturnia Regna Pension Trust Fund. In addition, he said, Mr Hichilema and his colleagues were paid handsome fees to manage the money and it therefore follows that it is inhuman to get  people’s money after they have paid you very well to manage their investment in their future. “Those Zambians who are criticising me must stop being one track minded or stop thinking in one direction only. They must wonder why Mr Hichilema does not answer my accusations but instead reverts to issuing statements through third parties,” he said. Mr Chipalo said it was a sign of heartlessness for any person to show no concern about the plight of ordinary Zambians and considers the complainants as worthless wretches. He said he did not understand why Mr Hichilema makes it his responsibility to accuse government over pension benefits for retirees but conveniently keeps quiet about responsibility over the BP Zambia Pension scandal which involved his companies. “This feeble deception must not mislead the public. The issue of the public pensions and the BP Zambia pension scandal are not comparable. The government has to raise money by taxing us to pay the pensioners; in the case of the BP Zambia pension fund, Mr Hichilema and his colleagues were given hard cash to invest and they have failed to pay in the last 20 years. So that is theft by the fund managers, there is no other description for it,” he said. Some people have also accused me of reviving the issue each time there is an election. That is not true, this issue has been in the news and only four months ago, the Lusaka High Court appointed Actuaries to compute the benefits and it was headline news. Mr Chipalo said together with his colleagues, they had documentary evidence to prove the corruption and dirty tactics that Mr Hichilema’s partners had engaged in to stop the computation of the benefits.   “I am therefore appealing to all those attacking me to first ask Mr Hakainde Hichilema to confirm or deny his involvement in the companies that manage the Saturnia Regna Pension Trust Fund and which stole the BP Zambia Pension funds in August 1999,” he said.