Malawi ex-president name not yet on Interpol list: Andekuche queries Malawi Police on existence of the warrant of arrest for Joyce Banda

Spokesman for former president Joyce Banda has said they have failed to obtain the warrant of arrest which Police disclosed it has been issued, saying there is no information of which court issued it, but Police have maintained they have the authority to arrest Banda as  they have secured a warrant of arrest from the court in relation to  her alleged involvement in cashgate-related cases.

“We have no idea who issued the warrant of arrest. We have not been able to trace which court issued it,” said Chanthuny on Daybreak Malawi programm of Capital Radio.

“So this warrant if at all it exists there must be reason why they are hiding it,” said Chanthunya’

But Police public relations officer James Kadadzera informed that Lilongwe Magistrate Court issued the arrest warrant for Banda in connection with the country’s “Cashgate” corruption scandal, which involved large-scale looting of government coffers.

“ We have a warrant of arrest from the court giving police authority.Many are confusing it with court summons. The warrant of arrest if giving the police authority to effect an arrest,” Kadadzera said on Daybreak Malawi.

He maintained that Malawi fiscal and fraud police have unearthed credible evidence which raises  “reasonable suspicion” that the former president committed offences relating to abuse of office and money laundering.

Kadadzera said Police can not “serve” the warrant of arrest to any other person except “effecting it” to the one they want to arrest.

He said since Banda is outside the country, the Police have informed the International Police (Interpol) that the Malawi former leader is wanted person ” suspected of abusing her  office” in the Cashgate scandal.

Banda has been living in self-imposed exile since she lost to President Peter Mutharika in the 2014 election.

Cashgate is the biggest financial scandal in Malawi’s history and helped push Banda out of power in 2014.

That came after she ordered an audit carried by British firm RSM (foremely Baker Tilly)   which discovered that $30 million had been looted by officials in less than six months in 2013.

Dozens of civil servants, business people and politicians have since been implicated in the scam, and some have been jailed.

International donors pulled the plug on aid of around $150 million over the scandal.