People’s Party (PP) district governor for Chikhwawa, Philimon Thom, has lambasted Minister of Transport Sidik Mia and other defectors from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), accusing them of joining the party only to confuse the party and dump it later.

Speaking on state-run MBC radio one on Tuesday, Thom said he was surprised that Mia and other DPP members defecting to the PP were not going through local structures at both constituency and district level.

“We are just hearing on the radio that so and so in Chikhwawa has defected to the PP yet we who run the PP in the district are not aware of anything.

“In some cases, some defectors are moving and are being welcomed by fellow defectors who joined earlier. Are these really genuine defectors?” wondered Thom.

He said those defecting to the PP now should know PP has office bearers who joined the party long time ago and have been with President Joyce Banda in difficult times.

“They can’t just leave their parties and try to hijack the party from us. No. They have to follow all the procedures. Every defector

in this district should first go to the constituency governor and later the district governor before announcing that they have joined,” said Thom.

“I strongly suspect that these DPP defectors are not genuine. They just want to join PP for their personal gains, confuse us and later dump President Joyce Banda the way they did with Professor Bingu wa Mutharika,” said Thom.

However, Mia, who announced his defection to the PP at a rally in his constituency last week, told MBC radio that he was surprised that the governor had gone to the media with an internal party matter.

“Why has he gone to the media? I know that he is campaigning for another shadow candidate for the PP in my constituency. But what he should know is that I am an experienced politician and I will sort this matter out politically,” said Mia.

He said his rally last week was meant to consult his constituents on his decision to move to the PP and that he was still in the process of getting to other structures of the party on his decision.

” Over 8,200 constituents came to my meeting and agreed with my decision. I am still moving step by step and from here, I will go to the district, then regional structures of the PP,” said Mia