Activists demand the release of JB’s sister

Human rights activists in the country have faulted the Police for arresting former Malawi President Joyce Banda’s sister Cecilia Kumpukwe and one Stella Assani.

The two who are also People’s Party officials are being accused of being behind the fake resignation letter for Vice President Saulos Chilima which went viral on social media.

Centre for the Development of the People (CEDEP) executive director Gift Trapence said the police’s behaviour of hiding information pertaining to the arrest of the two is unacceptable.

“The family of the accused have a right to know and also Malawians have a right to know if individuals have been arrested. I think police should not hide the information in line with our democratic values and human rights principles.

“When you start hiding is when people suspect that you are prosecuting the people on political grounds, Police should operate professionally,” he said.

On his part, Billy Mayaya accused the police of arresting the two on political grounds.

Meantime he has asked the government to release the two without a charge.

“It is not fair in a democratic society to hide information pertaining to suspects. We are also surprised to see the police sailing the high profile suspects all the way from Blantyre to Lilongwe.

“We feel that the arrests of Mrs Kumpukwe and Assani are politically motivated since they are members from the opposition. We call upon the government to release them without a charge,” said Mayaya.

When asked why it is wrong to take the suspects from Blantyre to Lilongwe, Mayaya said they could be killed along the way.

“Anything can happen when people are being sailed, They can be killed, They can be beaten along the way, so I think these are practices of one party government and we condemn them in the strongest terms,” he added.

Meanwhile the Police have confirmed the arrest of the suspects and according to national Police spokesperson James Kadadzera, the Police could not make it public since they were yet to get information from investigators.

“We were not hiding anything; we were getting the reports from the media not from our investigators. However we can confirm that we have arrested three people in connection to the fake resignation letter,” explained Kadadzera on a local radio.

Kumpukwe is a younger sister to the former head of state who left Malawi after she lost power in 2014 general elections.

The accused once worked at the State House during her sister’s two year tenure in the presidential office.