Staff Reporter | Newly elected National Peoples Party (NPP) Second Vice President Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, has made sensational claims of a plot to assassinate party president Joice Mujuru.

Nkomo told party members that some elements within the party had plotted to assassinate party leader Mujuru in order to take over the leadership of the party.

Addressing party leaders from Bulawayo province on Tuesday evening at his private offices in the city centre, Nkomo said that a faction of party members loyal to losing Vice President candidate Cuthbert Ncube are planning to lead an assassination of Mujuru with the help of the feared Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and thereafter force Ncube to take over the leadership of the party.

Nkomo told the members that his party’s intelligence unit has managed to gather full details of the plan which is now in jeopardy after Ncube lost the Vice President elections.

According to Nkomo, Mujuru was going to be allowed to lead the party to win the 2018 elections after which she would be assassinated and the leadership of the party and country be handed over to Ncube to finish the term office in 2023 where a new President would then be elected.

According to reports by party sources Nkomo accused Ncube of being a known member of the CIO who was being planted into the party to destabilise in ruling ZANU PF’s favour.

Meanwhile, the Bulawayo province management committee has dismissed seven members of the party believed to be aligned to the Ncube faction on allegations of wanting to form a splinter party.

Nkomo confirmed to the members the new arrangement by Ncube to start a new party claiming that a meeting with some war veterans and leaders from across the country in Beitbridge where plans to purge Mujuru before starting the new party were discussed.

Ncube could not be reached for a comment on the issues raised against him by his Vice President candidate rival Sipepa Nkomo.