LUTEPO’s LETTER TO KAPHALE ON HOW HE WAS FORCED TO IMPLICATE RALPH KASAMBALA

OSWALD FYWELL GIDEON LUTEPO
P.O. Box 915, LILONGWE.
17th July, 2014

The Honourable Attorney General Private Bag 333 Capital City LILONGWE 3.
Dear Sir,

RE: COMPLAINT AGAINST MESSRS BRUNO KALEMBA, FAHAD ASSANI AND KAMUDONI NYASULU FOR PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT

I write to lodge a formal complaint against Messrs Bruno Kalemba (the Director of Public Prosecutions), Mr Fahad Assani, the former Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Kamudoni Nyasulu, Cashgate prosecutor for professional misconduct and abuse of office over the way they forced me to write false witness statements and caution statements under duress.

BACKGROUND
Sometime in late September, 2013, I went on a business trip abroad. Whilst there I heard that I was involved in Cashgate.
Whilst abroad I spoke to the former State President, H. E Dr. Joyce Banda through the phone of Mr. Mitayi, a former guard commander. H. E. Dr. Joyce Banda instructed me to get in touch with the then Honourable Fahad Assani, then Minister of Justice & Constitutional Affairs who was to facilitate my cases.
At that time, I was not worried about alleged Cashgate cases as I had contracts with Ministry of Tourism and Office of President and Cabinet. Therefore, I was prepared to come to Malawi.

TELEPHONE DISCUSSION WITH KALEMBA AND ASSANI
After I had thoroughly explained to Mr. Assani of what I knew about the payments to my companies, he assured me that I would be a witness against Government officials; and therefore I should hasten to come back. I was assured of VIP treatment on my return notwithstanding there being an Interpol Warrant of Arrest. He also assured me that I will only be in custody for a maximum of 3 days.
He passed on the phone to Mr. Bruno Kalemba who assured me of the same; and advised me that they were acting on Presidential directives. Again they assured me that I was to testify against the following Senior Accountants: Messrs Kazombo Mwale, Fletcher Kaizo and Madzi.

MY DEALINGS WITH DPP AND FAHAD ASSANI
On my arrival I was indeed accorded free passage all the way to Area 30 Police Headquarters where I surrendered myself to Police. It was at the Police Headquarters where I was told in no uncertain terms that the Government was after the former Minister of Justice, Ralph Kasambara. I was told that I should cooperate to ensure that Ralph Kasambara was implicated in the Cashgate cases.
I was taken into police custody; and later on, I was moved to Zomba Maximum Security Prison. Whilst there, I received communication that I was to meet Mr. Pika Manondo the following day.

MEETING WITH PIKA MANONDO
I met Pika Manondo on Saturday 9th November, 2013 at Zomba Maximum Security Prison. The meeting was arranged so that we should strategize on how Mr Manondo was to implicate Mr Ralph Kasambara on the shooting of Paul Mphwiyo and myself on Cashgate cases. The said meeting took place on Saturday 9th November, 2013 at Zomba Maximum Prison.

We held the meeting privately in the absence of any security officer. Prior to the meeting, the R.C.I.O. (Centre) Maurice Makwinja took me aside and pleaded with me to ensure that I pump sense into Mr. Pika Manondo to ensure that he agrees to implicate Mr Kasambara. After a lengthy discussion with Mr Manondo, we both resolved that we would only testify if we were to say the truth and not create lies.

I should also stress that Mr. Pika Manondo smelt of alcohol. Something I did not understand, as to how a person in Police custody and who was on Interpol wanted list could have had access to alcoholic beverages.

During the meeting I discovered that both of us had been told similar stories. Mr. Manondo also informed me that en-route to the Prison he had spoken to the Director of Public Prosecutions Mr. Bruno Kalemba who had commanded him to engage Mr. Jai Banda as his lawyer. This was similar to what the then Minister of Justice Honourable Fahad Assani had instructed me.

POLICE TREATMENT AND RECORDING OF STATEMENTS
Under duress I had duly obliged and against my will and conscious, I engaged Mr. Jai Banda to represent me in the famous Money Laundering case.
The initial arrangement was that I would be a State Witness against Senior Public Officers who the State believed were responsible for the massive plundering of public resources christened cashgate. The officers mentioned to me were: Mr. Roosevelt Ndovi, Dr. Kazombo Mwale, Mr Kaizo, Mr. Madzi, Mr. G N Banda and some Accountants serving at the Office of the President and Cabinet and Accountant General.

On 21st November, 2013 the High Court Sitting in Zomba granted me bail. I was released on 6th December, 2013.

MEETINGS WITH DPP AND FAHAD ASSANI
In mid-December, 2013 I was summoned to meet Hon. Fahad Assani at his rural home in Nkhotakota. At this meeting the Minister warned me against linking Cashgate to the Head of State, her family and/or the Peoples Party. He claimed that my silence was instrumental in the 2014 Presidential Campaign. The Minister further directed that I should meet the DPP Mr. Bruno Kalemba for fresh instructions pertaining to my cases and other matters arising.

I therefore drove to the Capital Hill, Lilongwe to meet the Director of Public Prosecutions. Prior to the discussion, I requested that due to the fact that the issues to be discussed were legal in nature then I should invite my lawyer to be in attendance. Mr. Kalemba refused and assured me that it was not necessary.

During the meeting, Mr. Kalemba produced a sworn affidavit purportedly written by a Charles Chalunda alleging that I had master minded the shooting of Mr. Paul Mphwiyo. After reading the affidavit the meeting was adjourned because I had broken down crying.

When the meeting reconvened the DPP told me that there was a Presidential directive that I should implicate Mr. Ralph Kasambara and his allies; and that failure to do so would lead to my arrest, charging and remanding on conspiracy to murder Paul Mphwiyo. He further warned me that he would ensure that I was remanded like Mr Pika Manondo and never released on bail.

He also claimed that the State will force Mr Paul Mphwiyo to re-write a third statement implicating me. He boasted that they had already forced him to withdraw his initial statement and replace it with another implicating Mr Kasambara and his boys. Therefore, forcing him to issue yet another one implicating me would not be hard.

I was therefore told that I should comply with all instructions as will be dictated to me by the Police through the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations) Mr Nelson Bophani.
During the four months period from the end of December 2013 to March 2014, I was on numerous occasions summoned by various Police Officers and forced under duress to write statements implicating various individuals. I was usually forced to write three or four statements on any given activity.
Two senior officers who can possibly verify that I wrote these false statements under duress are the then Deputy Head of CID, Mrs Ngami and Head of Fiscal and Fraud division of Police Mr Bonongwe.

INSTANCES OF FALSE STATEMENTS
The statements I wrote were copied from printed statements that were said to have been drafted by Bruno Kalemba. However, I was unable to independently verify this. Examples of false witness statements that I was forced to write include:-

– Statements that I made and further repeated in Court claiming that lawyers Raphael Kasambara and Wapona Kita forced me to claim the cash in the Sithole money laundering case. This statement was forced upon me by Mr Kamudoni Nyasulu who was in the company of Mr Makwinja of CID Police. This was contrary to statements that we (Daniel Zimba, Elvis Nserebo, Chikumbutso Mwela and me) had given to the Police and ACB.

– Statements that all proceeds from the Mzuzu City Assembly projects which was under the Office of the President and Cabinet and the fencing of Liwonde National Park under the Ministry of Tourism were given to Mr Pika Manondo for onward transmission to Mr Ralph Kasambara. This statement was false and totally unbelievable. In the first place, at the time of receipt of the funds I fully believed that these were genuine payments for valid projects. I only discovered to the contrary later on. Secondly how could one steal money and give all of it to another person through a third party.

– The statement that I issued a MK 55 million cheque to Ralph and Arnold Associates for the benefit of Mr Ralph Kasambara. This statement is utterly false. I was forced to claim that the funds were proceeds from Ministry of Tourism and OPC. The transactions were in August and September 2013 and yet the cheque in question was issued in July 2013. How could one disburse “stolen” cash before the actual “stealing”? The truth was that this payment was Mr Pika Manondo’s share of a business investment he had made for a deal to supply assorted items to ESCOM procured from China and also an investment made by his Midrand based associate for procurement of items at Army Surplus Shop in Pretoria and delivered to the Malawi Defence Force.

– The statement that I had given MK200 million cash to former Inspector General of Police, Mr Peter Mukhito at Area 30 Petroda Filling Station. I had been forced to falsely claim that the funds were given to him in the presence of his wife and twin daughters. The statement was false and written under duress. I have never given cash or met or spoken to Mr Mukhito in my entire life.
I should further add that there were other statements that I wrote under duress that I am unable to recall at this moment. Most of these statements were written while I was taking anti-depressants due to the post prison trauma and society ostracizing me as the chief Cashgater that had caused several deaths in hospitals due to lack of medicine.

IN LIGHT OF THE ABOVE, I WRITE TO REQUEST FROM YOUR GOOD OFFICE THE FOLLOWING:-
– A] As Head of the Bar, would you please institute investigations into professional misconduct and abuse of office of the following legal practitioners: Messrs Bruno Kalemba, Fahad Assani and Kamudoni Nyasulu;

– B] Assist me in withdrawing all caution and witness statements that I have made as these were obtained from me in violation of my constitutional rights. Otherwise, I am unable to appear in Court to testify as I would be committing perjury and will properly be roasted by the defence counsel. Now I do not want to commit a criminal offence let alone be made a proper fool again in a court of law and suffer subsequent humiliation and ostracisation that I previously went through after testifying in the Sithole case.

– C] Investigate and bring to book the real masterminds and main beneficiaries of “Cashgate” scam. Please refer to the Baker Tilly Report which plainly states that the Suppliers and Contractors paid were not the ultimate beneficiaries.

To date, Government is shielding these individuals. This has been so as the incumbent Director of Public Prosecutions still operates under instructions from the previous (former) Head of State through a proxy who I prefer not to identify at this moment.

A search of Mr Kalemba’s call log will prove me right on this assertion.
-D] Further, investigate the various death threats that I had received and reported to Police. So far indications suggest that it was People’s Party cadres who were doing this. Due to the then prevailing circumstances, I was unable to identify and report these cadres.
Yours faithfully,
Oswald F. G. Lutepo