Mzuzu protesters arrested

Police this morning arrested 13 demonstrators in the city for going ahead with anti-government protests which had been called off.

The vigil was organised by Mzuzu Youth Association (MYA) to demand solutions to the maize crisis in the country but other members of the grouping on Sunday cancelled the protest.

Speaking to Malawi24 before the arrest, one of the arrested members, Andrew Longwe said corruption has made their friends to betray them.

“Our chairman, the publicity secretary for the vigil and one other member have received money from some politicians and they wrote a letter to the police telling them the vigil has been cancelled,” said Longwe.

He added that  it was difficult for the remaining for the remaining to write another letter to the police asking them for security during the vigil.

However, in an interview after the arrest of the members, chairperson for MYA Mervin Nyumayo denied the accusations.

“We have not received any bribe from anyone, we cancelled the vigil because we have found out that maize is there in the Admarc depots and we told our friends to come with us in researching if maize has reached Admarc depots but they refused,” said Nyumayo

However, on Friday Nyumayo also claimed that they had done research and found that there was no maize in Admarc depots across the region. He also declared that nothing will stop the young people from going ahead with the vigil.

The vigil was to be conducted at Mzuzu City Council with the youths carrying a coffin wrapped in a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) cloth and a dog wearing a DPP T-shirt.