State quiz Pika: Mphwiyo shooting case

The State prosecution team has  finished it’s cross examination with the second accused person Pika Manondo who is answering two charges of conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder in the ongoing shooting case of former budget director, Paul Montfort Mphwiyo.

The case which resumed on Monday  saw the state top prosecutor Mary Kachale continuing with cross examination to Manondo on issues to do the shooting.

Kachale questioned Manondo the exact time he left Chez Ntemba night club on the 13 September, 2012 the day Mphwiyo survived attempted murder in which the defendant said  he was not certain on  the exact time, saying it could be around 2 or 3 am of the 14th September.

The Director of Public Prosecution also took time to ask Manondo on his movements on the morning of 14th September 2013 which according to call logs provided by Airtel in court shows that at 8:44am he was using Dedza market tower the same as first accused person Macdonald William Kumwembe.

The call logs also showed that at 8:51 am he was using Chimbiya tower in Dedza of which Manondo didn’t dispute, saying he indeed travelled to Dedza as earlier indicated in court that he did travel to Dedza on 14th September morning to meet Kumwembe who was coming from Mozambique.

“I put it to you that you travelled from Lilongwe to Dedza with the first accused person  (Kumwembe) and you dropped  him there and returned back,” Kachale asked Manondo who refused the assumptions as not true.

Kachale also asked Manondo that “I put it to you that you travelled to Dedza to help him the first accused person stamp his passport that he was in Mozambique.”

Manondo replied: “My Lord why this assumption that has no basis to be backed up, why should I escort him just to stamp his passport ,why can he travel alone, he is not a lame person that he can’t travel to Dedza alone after all it’s a journey of one  hour in a bus.”

Kachale also asked Manondo if indeed a road cruiser is as the call logs shows that he was in Lilongwe using Bunda tower at 9:34 which is exactly after 50 minutes from Dedza. Monondo said  he can speed based on the circumstances.

Manondo also told the court that he is surprised with the state that only refers to June and September call logs when in actual fact he has been communicating frequently with the third accused person Ralph Kasambara way back even from January 2013.

This was after Kachale quizzed him to explain why call logs shows that he was texting with Kasambara frequently on the 14th of September after Mphwiyo’s shooting.

Manondo also quashed Kachale’s question which said Manondo was in Mangochi, Monkey Bay on the 15th September to seek refuge ,he went there as his home village and there’s no way he could go to seek refugee and come back the same day and meet Kumwembe at Chez Ntemba night club.

Manondo has also informed the court that he was using BlackBerry Messenger  (BBM) frequently talking to Kasambara and also the gunshot survivor Mphwiyo than calls which the state is using to build their case.

Judge Michael Mtambo has since thrown out the document which the state brought in court to use it to cross examine Manondo on issues to do with bank statement and balance of first accused person Macdonald William Kumwembe.

The state wanted to prove in court that the first accused person had K4 million balance in his account was from his ex employer the Malawi Defence Force as his compensation for termination of his contract.

“My lord I don’t know whether we should use this document and label it as an exhibit that we can also verify it to be true and use it in cross examination as well or it should be kept out as one of those documents the state  sometimes brings  in court ? I’m comfortable either way,” Kasambara asked the court.

Mtambo asked the DPP to explain the relevance of the document which she said was meant to show the source of alleged K4 million balances in Kumwembe account.

Judge Mtambo ruled that the document won’t form part of exhibit or evidence of the case

The state now has finished it’s cross examination and now the first accused person Macdonald William Kumwembe will continue to cross examine Manondo Tuesday morning before Kasambara also cross examine Manondo

The case is on a stage where former Justice Minister Raphael Kasambara SC, Pika Manondo and McDonald Kumwembe are defending themselves after the court ruled they have a case to answer.

Mphwiyo whose shooting on 13 September 2013 led to the unravelling of the systematic looting of millions of government money dubbed ‘cash gate’ and the resultant discovery that up to K24 billion million was minted from the government payment system, where politicians and businessmen colluded with civil servants for payments for goods and services not rendered to government.

Soon after Mphwiyo’s shooting millions of cash in Malawi kwacha, US dollars and South African rands started pitching up in unlikely places like in car trunks, baby dolls, under beds or in pillow cases.

Western donor countries and agencies reacted by freezing up to US $150 million in aid for Malawi.

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