ACB set to arrest and interview Mutharika over abuse of his TPIN

Former President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika (APM) will next week be arrested and interviewed under caution by investigators from the graft busting body – the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) – who want to understand how his Taxpayer Identification Number (TPIN) ended into the hands of his loyalists.

He is likely to be put under house arrest, sources say.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau Principal Public Relations Officer, Egrita Ndala issued a press statement on Friday, July, 2021, confirming only the ACB’s decision to get to the bottom of the matter.

In her communication, Ndala said: “The Anti-Corruption Bureau would like to inform Malawians that as part of the on-going investigation process into the allegations of abuse of the former President’s Taxpayer Identification Number (TPIN), the ACB will interview the former President, Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika from 20th July, 2021.

“The Bureau would like to let Malawians know that this is a normal and legal process, which started in 2020. The ACB hopes that this will put the record straight on the various stories circulating in the social media surrounding this matter,” the statement reads.

In conclusion, Ndala discloses that the interview will be conducted while observing Covid-19 prevention guidelines.

According to unconfirmed reports, the Bureau, Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) and the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) had written the former President on intention to interrogate him under caution last Tuesday but Mutharika refused citing Covid-19.

The reports also suggest that apart from the Covid-19 issue, authorities backtracked on their initial plan to interview APM because of an intelligence alert that suggested some people in Mangochi, where the former Head of State stays, had been mobilizing to block all roads leading to his private PAGE residence situated on the shores of Lake Malawi.

Some APM sympathizers have claimed that the impending interrogation and imminent arrest may have been triggered by APM’s angry outbursts at a press conference recently where he claimed the MCP and its partners, in cohort with the courts, had carried out a ‘judicial coup’ to depose him from power. He also accused President Chakwera and his administration of mismanaging the economy, plunging Malawians in deep poverty.

Mutharika lost the presidency to Chakwera following the June 23, 2020 presidential election re-run ordered by the courts following claims of irregularities in the initial poll in 2019.

Former security aide for Mutharika, Paulosi Norman Chisale, was recently arrested by police on allegations that he abused the former President’s tax exemption privileges. Chisale was charged with fraud and money-laundering in relation to a multi-billion Kwacha cement importation investigation involving the abuse of Mutharika’s TPIN.

The courts granted Chisale bail. There are unconfirmed reports Chisale and an Asian businessman in Lilongwe, Mahmed Shafee Ahmed Chunara, also arrested on similar charges, would be turned into state witnesses against the former President.