Mtambo calls for probe on DPP crimes, wrongful enrichment: Clearing Malawi rubble to fix the ruins

Citizen for Transformation Movement (CFT) leader Timothy Mtambo has urged government to probe cases which stalled during former president Peter Mutharika’s regime to be in tune with President Lazarus Chakwera’s mantra of clearing the rubble to fix the ruins of the nation.

Mtambo said this at a news conference he held in Lilongwe on Wednesday.

He said:  “Implementation of justice must be among the top priorities whereby Malawi should recover what she had lost to looters and plunders.”

He cited cases such as the saga of police officers who allegedly raped women in and around Msundwe area along the Lilongwe-Mchinji Road in October last year.

Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) established that some police officers perpetrated sexual violence against civilians but Police shielded the suspects among its rank and file.

In its report, MHRC said it established that police officers raped 13 women, defiled one girl and sexually-assaulted three under-18 girls during their October 8 2019 operation around the area.

Mtambo also wants closure on circumstances that led to the deaths of suspects such as Buleya Lule in police cell, as he was being tried in a case involving a person with albinism; third year Polytechnic engineering student and political activist Robert Chasowa and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director of corporate services Issah Njaunju, among other cases.

“CFT would like to see the new administration quickly enabling the instruments of law enforcement to investigate and prosecute those who have plundered and hurt this country in so many ways,” said Mtambo, a former leader of Human Rights Defenders Coalitions (HRDC).

Mtambo also said former president Mutharika’s cronies should be investigated for wrongful enrichment.

“Those that looted and criminally injured us as a nation, regardless their age and status in society, must be impartially subjected to the law enforcement agencies until they are all brought to book. We are all equal under the law and justice must never be sacrificed at the altar of political expediency,” said Mtambo.

He said all ill-gotten wealth that was looted from public vault must be restored back to the people of Malawi.

Mtambo has recommended that there should be an ‘Asset Recovery Taskforce’ headed by competent and patriotic Malawians to recoup any money stolen from the public sector including parastatals which were being used as finance transfer pumps for politicians.

“The recovery of the lost resources will quicken the healing process of the nation,” he pointed out.

Now frontline politician, Mtambo, who campaigned for Chakwera, says as the CFT leader he will continue playing his role to ensure those who committed offences are held accountable.