United Democratic Front (UDF) president Atupele Muluzi says he used his own vehicles and money during the campaign period for the Fresh Presidential Elections.
According to Muluzi, he never used the vehicles which are normally allocated to the state vice president.
Muluzi was former President Peter Mutharika’s runningmate in the elections in which Mutharika lost the presidency to Dr. Lazarus Chakwera.
Ahead of the elections, Muluzi crisscrossed the country to campaign for Mutharika but he was accused of using the vice president’s convoy.
Following Chakwera’s win, the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) said Muluzi should pay money to taxpayers for using police officers and government vehicles.
“As HRDC, we informed Mr. Muluzi against using state resources because it was against the law. The coalition, therefore, expects full payment for the convoy and police officers when our finance and administration finalizes the determination of the costs,” HRDC chairperson Gift Trapence said.
Trapence threatened to take the UDF leader to court if he fails to pay.
However, Muluzi in his response said the vehicles that were on his convoy do not belong to the government.
“I have never used any state convoy. In fact, I used my own funds. I used my own vehicles, even on the run-up to the 2019 tripartite elections, I used my resources, and Malawians know all this because they saw it,” said Muluzi.
