Stupid treason! Mutharika insists never asked Malawi army boss for coup
Malawi President Peter Mutharia on Sunday reiterated that the treason case he and other executive members of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP0 were answering during the former administration of now opposition People’s Party (PP) was a concoction of the PP administration.
Mutharika and his cohorts were arrested and charged of treason but the charges were dropped after he ascended to the high office of the land.
He was accused that his older brother, Bingu Wa Mutharika died in 2012 of cardiac arrest, he (Peter Mutharika and cohorts) conspired to block the legally elected the then vice President, Joyce Banda, from ascending to the presidency.
But speaking at Masintha ground in the capoital Lilongwe at another so called ‘development rally’ for the ruling party, Mutharika who was conspicuously fused said he never wanted to usurp power and maintained that the treason case was stupid and politically motivated..
“I am saying it again that the treason case was really stupid because myself, Goodall Gondwe and Bright Msaka never asked General Odillo to take over government. Never! And that was a total lie,” said Mutharika, praising himself as a good lawyer.
He said it was only unfortunate that the case did not proceed because he could have asked the lawyers to cross examine the prosecution team himself.
“You know that I am a lawyer myself and a competent one for that matter,” said Mutharika.
“ I think you remember well what happened in the court the first day of the case. I floored all of them with one question. With only one question they were all confused and adjourned the case right away,” he beamed amid the cheering supporters.
Mutharika said the case was a non-stater because it comprised prosecution team which he said was from the same village.
“Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry (Justice Elton Singini), Attorney General, Solicitor General and Chief Prosecutor all of them comes from the same village, you go and check for yourself. It was a concoction, total rubbish and there was no treason,” he said.
Meanwhile, influential newspaper columnist Raphael Tenthani writing in his popular Muckracking on Sunday Column asked the President to stop insulting Malawians by his outburst that the treason case was stupid.
Tenthani argued that “Former Army Commander General Henry Odillo told the Justice Elton Singini inquiry into the death of Bingu that a meeting at the current president’s house comprising the likes of Peter himself, Bright Msaka and Goodall Gondwe told him to take over government.
This is the General’s own words: “I felt …uncomfortable because I think there is no provision at all in the Constitution which provides the military taking over power or getting involved in politics.”
Tenthani then continued to write, “So, you see, Peter was among the group of purveyors of unconstitutional transfer of power. This group wanted to take over government by all means. They were so nihilistic to the extent that if it was not possible for them to take over power then the army should. If this was not treason, good people, then school me what treason is.
Had it not been for General Odillo’s respect for the Constitution and professionalism, this group of crooks – for that is what they truly are – could have taken over power illegally. Joyce Banda could have been killed if she tried to assert her rights and the country could have been plunged into chaos and bloodshed.”
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