Mtumodzi orders arrest of Nation journalists

Mtumodzi: There is rebuttable evidence

A reporter and editor for Nations Publications Limited have been earmarked for arrest to force confession on how they obtained a venomous letter from President Bingu wa Mutharika to former President Bakili Muluzi.

The Weekend Nation first published the story about the letters which was authored by Maxwell Ng’ambi a public enemy of State House Press Officer Chikumbutso Mtumodzi.

Security forces said they have instructions from Mtumodzi to arrest UDF director of research Humphrey Mvula alongside The Nation reporter Ng’ambi and editor George Kasakula.

“As police we have been working on an appropriate charge to press on the suspects but certainly the arrest will be affected on Mvula and the journalists will have to confess,” said a CID officer.

Mtumodzi bragged on Capital FM radio’s Day Break Malawi radio on Thursday that police are going to nab Mvula.

“It’s not an allegation, it’s a fact. Humphrey Mvula is the one who authored the letter,” said Mtumodzi. “There is rebuttable evidence on this issue.”

Mtumodzi sounded upbeat that police will obey his orders to arrest Mvula and that he has overwhelming evidence linking the UDF director of research to the leakage of the letters.

He said the journalists who published the story are bringing evidence that it is Mvula who gave them the letters.

“I do not want to jeopardize the investigations,” he told Capital FM. “Do you think I can just go public and announce that without having evidence. Am I mad?”

State House spokesman said police are dealing with the matter with the assistance of legal experts.

Mvula is being accused of committing an offence for making public a state-prescribed strictly confidential document in form of a letter to Muluzi whose own reply has also found its way into the media. 

However, Mvula in an interview on Capital FM accused Mtumodzi’s “calculated vendetta” to get him locked up saying there has been leakage of so many public information including that of Bill Number 8 which President Mutharika assented before parliament debated and passed.

Mvula accused Mtumodzi that he has implicated him causing at least five of the eleven arrests that he has suffered since 2004.  

“I don’t know what I have not done for [Mtumodzi]. I kept him in my house. I don’t know whether he is trying to prove to his master that he now has great hatred for me than possibly the President.

“But if the President has hatred against me it’s unfortunate. I was chief campaign manager of the President. I did not just invest my brains but also money,” he said.

“This is our country, this is not Mtumodzi country. This is not DPP country. This is Malawi,” said Mvula who threatened to sue Mtumodzi for defamation.

However, Mtumodzi branded Mvula a criminal: “He has a lot of cases, killing people, stealing; he is the one who should be prosecuted.”

Mvula warned Mtumodzi: “Life is a moving shadow, the evil we do today will leave long after us.”

In the letter, the President accuses his predecessor of spreading many “lies” among other things that Mutharika is suffering from prostate cancer and in turn writes that he knows Muluzi is a sick man.

The former president pointed out in his reply that he has since being cured of disc problems which "came about because of the grueling campaign of 2004 that I had undertaken on Your Excellency’s behalf".