Dausi says MCP gurus face arrests  for conspiracy against Malawi govt

Several senior members of the opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) face possible arrests following claims by Minister of Information Nicholus Dausi that government has reports that they have been conspiring against government to fix maize prices.

Dausi said in an interview  with Nyasa Times that  the MCP members have been conspiring with maize vendors to cause an artificial maize shortage in the country so as to influence an unjustified price increase as a way of engineering civil unrest to unseat the DPP government.

According to Dausi, government has received “intelligence information” that some well-known members of the MCP  have been meeting in Lilongwe where they agreed to pressure government into reducing the price of maize to enable vendors buy all the grain it has in stock so that the vendors can later offer it to ordinary Malawians at K18,500.

Currently a bag of fifty Kilograms of maize is going at MK 12,500.

The Minister of Information, who doubles as government spokesperson, said most of the vendors listed in the report have links to MCP members of Parliament including the party president  and opposition leader Dr. Lazarus Chakwera.

‘‘I can  say without fear of illogicality, confirm that we have been briefed about that strategy, but as government we are ready to expose them and it shall not come to pass’’, said Dausi.

Dausi, himself a former spy under the MCP administration said according to their intelligence, the opposition’s plan is take advantage of their numbers in the National Assembly to ambush the government side, move a private members motion resolving that the price of maize be reduced from MK12,500.00 to MK 8,000.00.

‘‘In their tyrannical wisdom, they think the DPP government is so naïve in the government statecraft such that we can gaze at them executing their repugnant plan without as taking action.

“We know their modus operandi, and they will not triumph’’, added Dausi.

Asked to comment on comments that the intelligence report is bogus and a DPP government ploy to arrest MCP leaders on triumphed up charges, Dausi was elusive. ‘‘Who says its bogus? Wait and see..The report is being analysed by experts to see if there are criminal fundamentals in what these honorable members were planning. Because when you at it in totally, it looks like the MCP member’s gland plan was to bring down a lawfully constituted government. So, let’s cross the bridge when we get there’’, he retorted.

MCP officials could not immediately comment.