Chakwera on Mutharika’s neck over Chaponda

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera has asked President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika to immediately direct the law-enforcement agencies, including the Police and Anti-Corruption Bureau to make the necessary consultations with the Speaker of Parliament on the lawful procedures for taking Dr. George Chaponda into custody for questioning about the sources of the contraband confiscated from his house.

Chakwera said this in a Press Statement Made available to faceofMalawi where he highlighted a number of issues.

In the statement, Chakwera said Mutharika has defied the will and wishes of Malawians long enough, and “it is time for us to defy him.”

“If we do not, very little of the Malawi we love will be left by the time this government is done pillaging it. The government’s incompetence and fraud exposed by the Parliamentary Committee’s report is disturbingly deep and entrenched.

“The Joint Committee’s findings were corroborated by the retired Justice Anastasia Msosa’s Commision of Inquiry. So if President Mutharika thinks we will be satisfied with him setting Dr. George Chaponda to take the fall for the fraudulent maize deal without taking any action to address the other dirty elements identified in the report, then he is gravely mistaken,” said Chakwera.

Chakwera said Mutharika’s actions and reactions to the Maize-Gate inquiry and its subsequent report have left a lot to be desired.

“Before the report was even presented to him, he was out and about town on the eve of the report presentation saying “We should stop writing negative about our country. For example, the issue about Maize-Gate is useless, it is false. We have wasted a lot of time talking about it, yet there is nothing wrong that happened”. Only to be contradicted by his own instituted Commission of Enquiry,” he added.

Turning to the recent search by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) into the house of Chaponda where they confiscated money amounting to MK166 million, Chaponda said: “No credible police would raid a home and confiscate things considered illegal to possess without taking the person found in possession of them into custody. Until Mutharika does this, he has done nothing.”

Chakwera has also asked President Mutharika to immediately direct the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to conduct similar searches in the assets of each member of his cabinet.

“We demand that in view of the fact that a high ranking member of Mutharika’s cabinet has been caught in possession of cash amounts that have the looks of illicit cash flows reminiscent of Cashgate, President Mutharika immediately directs the Anti-Corruption Bureau to conduct similar searches in the assets of each member of his cabinet; immediately directs the Financial Intelligence Authority to examine the personal bank accounts of every member of his cabinet; and immediately directs the National Intelligence Bureau to place every member of his cabinet under surveillance until the Malawian people are given assurances that no other minister of government is using their position to conduct undocumented transactions for personal enrichment,” said Chakwera.