ACB says still no JB, Lutepo CCTV footage 

Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB)  has said it still has not received the  CCTV footage of former president Joyce Banda’s 23 meetings with chief Cashgate suspect, Oswald Lutepo, and other senior People’s Party (PP) members at four different state residences in the country as government claimed.

Government though its spokesman Kondwani Nankhumwa said last week that they handed over the footage to Malawi’s corruption-busting body for forensic examination and further action.

But the bureau has said they have no copies of the CCTV footage.

ACB boss Lucas Kondowe said on Monday, the bureau has no copies of the CCTV footage.

“Not yet with us,” he said, adding that  they will  “analyse” the evidence if it comes.

The ACB  deputy director, Reyneck Matemba  also said there is no record of receipt of the CCTV footage or any documents from Nankhumwa.

“We do not have such materials at the bureau,” Matemba stressed.

But Minister of Information Nankhumwa maintained that government handed  the CCTV fooage to ACB and also documents that prove that Lutepo booked and attended the meetings with Banda between December 2012 and September 2013.

Banda, through her personal assistant, Andekuche Chanthunya, said the government’s claim about the CCTV footage is a desperate attempt to divert people’s attention away from the worsening economic situation.

He said the Malawi government is determined to implicate Banda, in the scam through various means.

“It’s not strange that Lutepo and other senior PP members had meetings with Banda because Lutepo was an executive member of the party,” Chanthunya said.

He added that the CCTV cameras at all state residences have not been functional for some time until the time  Banda left office as Head of State.

“At Kamuzu Palace, for instance, the CCTV cameras stopped working in 2010 during the reign of the late President Bingu wa Mutharika. It is, therefore, surprising for government to claim they have the said CCTV footage,” he said.

Nankhumwa has however dismissed fears that government is on a political witch-hunt against Banda, the country’s first-ever female president, saying they handed the alleged CCTV footage following L utepo’s allegations in the local media that he was used as a conduit to siphon off billions of public funds through dubious deals by the former president.

But Banda argues that the move by government vindicates her fears that some quarters are using Lutepo as “a pawn to drag her name in the mud”.

Lutepo confessed on radio that he was guilty swindling the state, but said  he had personally delivered  some cash donations  to Banda during her term as president for her party campaign.