Justice Chikopa weigh in on MBC procurement laptop scandal

In what can be describe as a bizarre situation, Malawi Supreme Court Justice Lovemore Chikopa was personally involved in a struggle with Malawi police junior officers in Blantyre Thursday night over custody of a laptop belonging to Malawi Broadcasting Corporation.

Chikopa drove to the police station in the company of MBC employee George Pahuwa apparently to demand back a laptop belonging to MBC.

The police earlier collected the laptop from Pahuwa’s residence on instructions from MBC management.

According to Blantyre police spokesperson Ramsy Mushane, Pahuwa a procurement officer at MBC was clinging to the office laptop a day after he was transferred from his office to pave way for an audit.

‘‘Yes, we received a request from MBC security officer to accompany him to collect a company laptop which Mr Pahuwa was keeping without company authority. We collected it after a struggle with Pahuwa and took it to Blantyre police for safe custody’’, said Mushani.

Pahuwa allegedly showered insults and profanities at the police officers and the MBC security officer who accompanied them.

Mushane added that minutes after the police arrived at the Blantyre office Station with the laptop, Justice Chikopa stormed the police station in the company of Pahuwa.

The two demanded that the laptop be returned to Pahuwa and that MBC security officer a Mr. Mphande be locked up for harassment.

The police say they did not find the conduct of the honourable Justice in order and that after consultations with their superiors, they refused to release the laptop.

‘‘We asked the Judge in what capacity he was at the station giving orders and what was his interest in the MBC laptop; he could not give proper answers and instead started shouting at our officers and threatening them’’, the Police said.

According to MBC public relations officer Ruth Gama, MBC management last Wednesday transferred Pahuwa to another office and instructed him to immediately handover his office including the office laptop to a new occupier.

Upon receipt of the transfer instruction, Pahuwa packed the company laptop in his bag, rushed out of MBC without taking leave and went to his home in Ndirande newlines.

When Pahuwa was called by MBC administration to bring back the laptop, he angrily replied saying he should not be bothered as he had started a holiday. ironically, MBC administration denied having authorised any holiday for Pahuwa.

‘‘Later our security alerted us that they had information that Mr. Pahuwa had asked an IT expert at MBC [name withheld] to immediately follow him home to help him erase data from a laptop. That’s when Management directed the security section to immediately recover the laptop ,’’ Gama said.

When asked to comment on the incident, Justice Chikopa could not be reached on phone while Pahuwa shouted at this reporter.

‘‘What’s your business? Justice Chikopa is my friend, so what? “ shouted Pahuwa.

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