ACB ready to arrest JB, Interpol might be asked to ‘smoke her out’

Malawi’s former president Joyce Banda is on the verge of being arrested over her alleged role in a public loot of resources popularly known as Cash gate, Malawi24 has learnt.

Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has reportedly gotten a warrant of arrest for the former leader who has been on a self-imposed exile since 2014.

With the order, the ACB will be writing to the court to order Banda to come back from the United Kingdom where she continues to live.

Reports say she will be charged for money laundering and abuse of office.

In January last year, Cashgate Convict Oswald Lutepo named Banda as the architect behind Cashgate which resulted in the looting of over K554 billion between 2012 and 2014

Kalonga told the court that the PP got up to 60 percent of the benefits from the proceeds.

The scandal saw up to K2.4 billion being stolen through various unscrupulous deals.

Banda was also implicated in the Paul Mphwiyo shooting by Lutepo.

According to the testimony, Joyce Banda ordered Lutepo to hand Pika Manondo K10 million to finance John Tembo’s campaign materials leading up to the MCP convention.

In a turn of events, Lutepo who is serving 11 years for cashgate related crimes has conceded that he was forced by the then Malawi Police Deputy Inspector General Nelson Bophani to implicate Ralph Kasambara in the shooting of then Malawi Budget Director Paul Mphwiyo.

The attempt on Mphwiyo’s life led to the discovery of the cashgate scandal. A forensic exercise by British Auditors established that K24 billion of public funds was stolen between April and September 2013. Another audit analysis by Pricehouse waters Cooper (PwC) found that K553 billion of K570 billion was uncounted for during the two years that Joyce Banda was president.

Ironically, a few hours following the shooting Joyce Banda said on 14 September that Paul Mphwiyo was targeted because he was fighting corruption.

She said that she knew people who plotted the shooting, a claim she currently denies making.

Ex Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and Culture the late Treza Namathanga Senzani claimed that Banda instructed officials in Ministries as well as Cabinet Ministers to siphon money so that she uses the funds in the presidential campaig in 2014, a poll she miserably lost.

Senzani said that Banda’s directive was highly respected because she (Banda) was the sitting President then.
But Banda has kept clearing her name in all these events. She argues that she is being implicated because there are several forces behind the move.

Banda had in a statement said that Senzani was being pressured by government to implicate her, dubbing the claims by the jailed Principal Secretary as ‘baseless’.

She was however controversially seen in CCTV footages showing her in closed meetings with Lutepo as announced by ex Minister of Information, Kondwani Nankhumwa, before the said videos were not even provided to ACB.

The scandal led to donors pulling the plugs on aid to Malawi and as it stands over 70 people are answering various charges.

Analysts argue that the scandal led to Banda’s unpopularity and led to her loss in the 2014 Presidential Polls.