GOVERNMENT DISMISSES CLAIMS OF FAILING TO PROVIDE JOYCE BANDA WITH NECESSITIES

The government has dismissed the claims made by former Peoples party (PP) vice president Uladi Musa of failling to take care of former president Joyce Banda.

Mussa claimed that government is failing to provide Banda with official retirement home as stipulated by the Act of Parliament.

In an exclusive interview with one of the media houses on Monday evening, Mussa who is people’s party vice president of central region said government has huge appetite to arrest former president on political grounds.

“We know that warrant arrest has been prepared for her. But I don’t understand why government continues to oppress former Head of States,” said Mussa.

The former president told the local newspaper over the weekend that her nine-month absence from the country does not imply that she is in “self- exile

Banda explained that she made “a deliberate decision” upon leaving office in May 2014 that she was going “to step up onto the global platform and continue with my developmental work that I have done for the past 30 years”.

There is precedence that former President Bakili Muluzi stayed in the United Kingdom for a long time and nobody said anything and nobody called that ‘self-exile’.

I have been out of the country for nine months and five out of those months, I have been in the United States from where I travelled to many countries to fulfill speaking and other engagements,” said Banda.

Banda further said there was no reason to fear any arrest as she was not implicated in the cash gate affair in the forensic audit report by British firm Baker Tilly

Minister of Information who is also government spokesperson, Kondwani Nankhumwa dismissed Mussas claims, saying there was no arrest warrant for Banda and that government once provided her with the official house.

“Information in our possession is that, there is no any warrant of arrest issued against the former President. I crosschecked with the law-enforcing agencies,” said Nankhumwa.

Nankhumwa claimed it was the wish of government to have Banda in the country enjoying her freedom like any other citizen.

On the issue of housing Nankhumwa said In fact government provided her with the house last year therefore those claims are not true

Earlier this year government removes some of the Banda’s security personnel.
Necessities