Govt yet to act on Comesa journalist incident during UTM presidential nominations

Government is yet to question and investigate alleged UTM Party security personnel who are said to have assaulted a journalist George Banda at Comesa Hall on Wednesday during the presentation of nomination papers by Vice President  and UTM torchbearer Saulos Chilima.

Chilima personally condemned the incident on the spot when it was brought to his attention and called on police to investigate and prosecute the offenders.

“We regret the unfortunate incident which has been brought to my attention and apologize to the journalist and all the journalists in the country.  I will be writing MISA Malawi on the same. I would like to ask the police to investigate this and prosecute everyone involved in this shameful incident, ” Chilima told Zodiak radio when asked about the incident soon after presenting his nomination papers.

However,  instead of investigating the issue, government through Minister of Information Henry Mussa issued a press statement on Thursday condemning UTM party on the incident.

Government said its findings indicate that Banda was assaulted for being suspected to be a member of the ruling DPP.

However,  the journalist, George Banda is an accredited stringer hired by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC).

The government press release does not state the progress made by the police in investigating the case as suggested by Chilima.

A social and political commentator faulted government for ‘spending time writing the long winded statement instead of investigating the matter’.

“Instead of investigating this issue as rightly observed by the Vice President Saulos Chilima,  government is busy writing the press release which is aimed at scoring cheap political points.”

“We are all against political violence whether is being perpetrated by DPP or UTM or UDF or any political party, but here is a situation where the leader of the party which is alleged to have committed the crime is open enough to condemn it on the spot and ask authorities to investigate and prosecute those involved and all you do is release a statement instead of investigating the incident, that is some shallow thinking, ” posted one human rights activist  on social media.