State House, OPC confirm Uladi resignation as Mutharika’s aide: DPP veep ‘stunned’

State House spokesperson and Office of President and Cabinet (OPC)  have said it is true that presidential advisor on parliamentary affairs Uladi Mussa has  resigned.

State broadcaster MBC quoted chief secretary to government Lloyd Muhara and State House spokesman Mgeme Kalilani confirming that Mussa has ceased to perform duties of presidential advisor on parliamentary affairs.

But Mussa  on Monday said he did not resign.

Asked to comment after State House and OPC confirmed his resignation, Mussa whom Mutharika on June 19 appointed as his special adviser of parliamentary affairs and also serves as governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice-president for the Central Region, said he was stunned.

“Is that so? It’s news to me,” said Mussa.

OPC announced Mussa’s resignation with immediate effect amid reports that donors have been questioning his appointments following his ongoing corruption court case.

Mussa is linked to a passport and citizenship scandal that shocked the country as he is answering charges of aiding about 55 foreign nationals from Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda to illegally obtain Malawian passports and business permits when he served as minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security in the Cabinet of former president Joyce Banda in 2013.

Recently, the United States of America (USA) banned  the President’s aide and his spouse for his alleged “involvement in significant corruption”.

The US Embassy in Lilongwe said  in July that Mussa’s designation was made under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Act of 2019 which empowers the Secretary of State where there is “credible information that foreign officials have been involved in significant corruption or gross violations of human rights” to be ineligible for entry into USA.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Mussa in March 2017 on charges of negligence and abuse of office, but Mussa, who was then serving as interim leader of People’s Party (PP), said at the time that his arrest was politically-motivated.

He handed himself to the ACB after reports surfaced that the bureau wanted to arrest him in relation to the granting of citizenship and passports.