Former cabinet ministers, among them Patricia Kaliati have denied allegations they were integral of the letter in which President Joyce Banda reportedly tendered her resignation to the Speaker of the National Assembly due to illness.
This follows the arrest of the 34 year-old Wells Tsidya Phiri who is on remand at Maula prison in Lilongwe after he was nabbed on March 6 as the main suspect behind the purported resignation letter.
Phiri, who is currently battling with minor stroke which has consequently paralyzed his right limbs, has told the Malawi News that he is being accused of authoring the said letter and that he was first taken to Police Headquarters at Area 30 in Lilongwe for interrogations before being committed to Maula prison.
He also claimed that the former ministers Kaliati and Henry Mussa had earlier accused him of mentioning of their names to government as people behind the letter.
Mussa: Denies involvement
“I had bought a groundnut shelling machine for deputy health minister Halima Daudi and went to Capitol Hill to collect my payment. After failing to meet the deputy minister, I drove back to town with a Democratic Progressive Party official who had asked for a lift.
“When I stopped at one of the banks at the city centre I saw some officials from the former ruling party who took me to Capital Hotel where I met former cabinet ministers Patricia Kaliati and Henry Mussa.
“These people were accusing me that I had mentioned their names to government that they were the ones who authored the president’s resignation letter and that I had used Honourable Daudi to report them to government,” Phiri told the paper.
He further said Daudi, who was also summoned to Capital Hotel, expressed ignorance of the allegations.
“Later they took me to police where they said it was me who was the author of the letter. They have not proved anything and their witness-Andrew Namathanga-confessed that he was not telling the truth and he has since been convicted for lying and is serving a three-year prison sentence,” he is quoted as saying.
Both Kaliati and Mussa denied any knowledge of anyone by the name of Tsidya Phiri with the former adding that she was not President Banda to report anyone to police on such a matter.
They are also among former ministers and interdicted government officials answering treason and inciting mutiny charges.
Meanwhile, Phiri, who has so far spent 37 days at the prison, has asked for medical attention for his blood pressure problem.
“At the moment I’m not okay and if I don’t get medical attention, I might die right here,” he claimed.
