Three people arrested for opening fake lands office in Lilongwe

Three people have been arrested in Lilongwe for allegedly establishing a parallel Lands Office where they transacted and sold plots using fake documents.

Confirming the development in an interview, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Lands and Urban Development, Joseph Mwandidya identified the three as Mustag Mahomed, Chifuniro Simumbe and lawyer Uman Mataka. He said the fourth suspect Alex Mawaya is on the run.

Mwandidya explained that with the help of the Police they are still looking for Mawaya.

“It is true that together with Police we arrested the three men, one thus the lawyer was arrested Wednesday evening while the two were arrested on Thursday evening, they will be charged soon and the police will be in a better position to say the charges against them,” he said.

Nation Online has learnt that about six plots have since been confirmed to have been sold and the proceeds did not go to account number one.

“We have complaints often at our office where people complain of their plots being sold without their knowledge,” said Mwandidya.

The six confirmed plots which have allegedly been fraudulently sold include plot number Area 47/1219 which was sold by Mahomed at K300 million, and Simumbe and Mawaya are on record to have sold for K50 million each plot numbers, Area 43/ 999, Area 43/998, Area 43/995, Area 43/994 and Area 43/993.