DPP rejects instructing Lutepo to make cashgate confessions

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has rejected claims by Peoples Party (PP) that  chief Cashgate suspect Oswald Lutepo is acting on instructions from President Peter Mutharika after a meeting to drag former president Joyce Banda into the plunder of the public purse.

Speaking in an interview on Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) on Sunday, PP publicity Secretary Ken Msonda accused DPP of using Lutepo to implicate Banda.

Responding to the allegations DPP spokesman Francis Kasaila said: “There has been no time that the President has met Lutepo at Sanjika. The President has been very busy doing penitent business of national importance.

“What Lutepo is saying is not new, because all along Malawians have been well aware of that there is a big fish which has been behind cash gate,” said Kasaila.

In an earlier interview with Nyasa Times, Kasaila said DPP fills vindicated that what the party has been saying was true that Cashgate was a brainchild of Peoples Party (PP).

In an interview on Saturday, Kasaila said “There is nothing new in what Lutepo is saying, we have always waited for this, and we are sure more revelations are coming.”

“We have always been waiting for a big fish so surely Malawi is about to see the big fish which has been swimming in much deeper waters,” said Kasaila.

Kasaila commended Lutepo for coming up clear on what happened to loot government coffers.

The businessperson who was arrested in November 2013 is accused of stealing K2.6 billion of public money stemming from payment he allegedly received, despite his company International Procurement Services not providing any service to government.

He told Zodiak radio last week that he donated some of his money to former president Joyce Banda for political campaign of the PP.

The PP and Banda have dismissed Lutepo’s claims, saying he is “buying freedom” and seeking a plea bargain for accepting the wrong doing and then turning the cashgate case into “political witch-hunt” in the interest of DPP.

He also offered an apology to President Peter Mutharika, saying he will face problems to run government affairs because he looted public money with others.

Lutepo, who is currently on bail, also faces an attempt to murder charge in the shooting of former budget director in the Ministry of Finance Paul Mphwiyo.

He also has another perjury charge after admitting lying in court under oath.

Lutepo has vowed to give details on the whole truth of the Capital Hill looting saga saying as much as he is guilty, he won’t go down alone.