Nankhumwa denies lying about JB, Lutepo CCTV footage

Malawi’s Information Minister, Kondwani Nankhumwa has maintained that government handed over to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) footage of meetings between former president Joyce Banda and Cashgate suspect Oswald Lutepo that implied the two were discussing something sinister bordering on corruption or fraud.

The minister has been facing demand to tell Malawians who he gave the footage to ACB and how the pictures were taken after revelations that CCTV cameras in State residences packed up long time ago.

ACB hierarchy has been emphatic that it knows nothing about the CCTV footage handover and Joyce Banda’s office said all State residences do not have working CCTV and that is the reason the nation does not know the last moment of former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika in 2012 because even then the cameras had ground to a halt.

Speaking during Tiuzeni Zoona interview program on Malawi’s privately owned Zodiak Broadcasting Station, Nankhumwa denied that he was lying about the submission of the CCTV footage to the ACB officials and maintained that he sent the footage to the officials of the director of the ACB.

“Yes I watched the content of all the footage but I can’t reveal what it is about because our lawyers have advised us not to reveal the content of the footage,” said Nankhumwa.

Nankhumwa also claimed that he was not aware of the query filed by the ACB on the whereabouts of the footage.

The minister also strongly declined to mention the specific people or government organ that sent the footage to the ACB officials “on legal grounds.”

“What I can say is that it is the government which sent the footage to the ACB. Yes, I know those who sent the footage to the ACB but I can’t disclose because our lawyers have advised us against mentioning them in public,” he said.

Nankhumwa said he feels the footage has delayed to reach the ACB offices because of workers strikes.  He hoped that the footage will reach the ACB soon after strike.

The information minister said Malawians should not rush at accusing him of lying because “within the coming two or three days something is expected to come out which may be strongly connected to what we earlier said.”  He did not elaborate.

He therefore appealed to members of public to stop accusing him of lying through his teeth on the CCTV footage.