Malawi Police arrest five for fresh murder attempt on Mphwiyo
Malawi Police on Sunday arrested five people who allegedly attempted to murder Budget Director Paul Mphwiyo barely few days after his arrival from South African hospital.
The five were arrested at Mphwiyo’s Area 43 Residence in Lilongwe.
A relative of one of the arrested suspects, Masautso Humba, said his uncle, Fredereick Tsokalankhuku is among the five and identified the other four as Harrison Masala, Mekias Phiri, a Mr. Herbert, and another man known by his nickname ‘Short’.
Humba said the five were burning two brick kilns in Area 43 and were arrested when their car was found parked outside the gate of Mphwiyo house after it had run out of fuel around 2 am.
He said when Tsokalankhuku returned to the scene with four other men to push the vehicle from Mphwiyo’s house, they found armed police officers who allegedly ordered them to leave the vehicle and collect it in the morning.
In the morning they were taken to National Police Headquarters where they were charged with attempted murder.
Humba said police later changed the charge to that of trespassing.
Both National police spokesperson Rhoda Manjolo and Lilongwe Police spokesperson Ramsey Mushani said they needed to check with their colleagues.
Mphwiyo arrived into the country last week.
Meanwhile, Malawi police say they have not discovered a connection between the shooting of Mphwiyo and the cashgate scandal but that he remains a crucial witness in his attempted murder case.
Deputy Inspector General of Police (operations) Nelson Bophani told journalists in the capital, Lilongwe on Monday that Mphwiyo had given the police strong clues as to who fired three bullets into his body on September 13 at the gates of his Area 43 house in Lilongwe.
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