Lilongwe Mayor Bikoko office sealed by the workers, demand his removal:

Irate city council staff of Capital Lilongwe has risen against Mayor Desmond Bikoko shutting his office and demanding him to surrender mayoral vehicle and  sealed off the offices of the chief executive officer and director of planning describing them as “useless and corrupt.”

This comes barely a day after the Mayor led a group of councillors to paralyze the office of the City CEO Moza Zeleza accusing him of not “helping” them.

Zeleza is on a short leave and was not available as issues unfolded .

On Wednesday morning the Lilongwe Civic Centre became a beehive of another spectacle again as irate staff turned to the Mayor and his councillors and accused them of soliciting bribes in land deals and forcing the CEO to rubber-stamp the shoddy deals.

“We know why you don’t want to work with the CEO. It’s because he has refused to officiate your land deals where you sold land corruptedly,” one employee was overheard.

The bone of contention is a huge piece of land that lay along the City Eastern bypass road called the Area 46.

It is alleged that Mayor Bikoko and some councillors helped themselves of the said land, selling it to third parties without formal approval from the Council and Ministry of Lands.

“We now know that the buyers are looking for legitimate letters and Bikoko and team have been forcing the CEO to write and sign them. The CEO (Zeleza) has been refusing to do so because the land belongs to the Ministry and it’s for investors,” one source told Nyasa Times.

The irate workers have vehemently opposed to be silenced or forced to officiate the clandestine operations of the Mayor and his councillors.

Meanwhile, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has confirmed receiving a complaint of abuse of office against Mayor Bikoko.

Bikoko refused to take questions on the matter saying he was shocked as to why his name has been singled out when over five councillors were part of the protest yesterday through closure of the CEOs office.

The workers have also sealed the Human Resources Officer Christina Mandidi’s office accusing her  of inside leaking of personal staff information.

The mayor’s vehicle has since been successfully taken away and driven to the council’s works department.

 

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