Malawi Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director General Martha Chizuma has been summoned to appear at Malawi Police Headquarters tomorrow over her leaked audio.
Reports indicate that Chizuma will be at the Malawi Police Headquarters at Area 30 in Lilongwe at around 10 AM.
The Police have reportedly been told by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Steven Kayuni to investigate Chizuma over the audio.
Malawi Police Deputy Spokesperson Harry Namwaza told the local media that he could neither confirm nor deny the reports.
Earlier this month, a man identified as Frighton Mphompho asked a court in Mzuzu to open a case against over the leaked audio, claiming that Chizuma broke the law by allegedly revealing official information to an unauthorized person. The court said Police and the DPP should conduct an investigation into the issue.
The investigation by the Police comes as Chizuma’s ACB has reportedly finished investigating a corruption case which involves procurement deals at Malawi Police.
“Police are now investigating ACB director Martha Chizuma and may recommend her removal from office. The ACB which Chizuma leads has among others been investigating the police on a major procurement of anti-riot water cannons,” Platform for Investigative Journalism reported.
Social commentator Onjezani Kenani believes that the investigation into the audio is part of a “plan to give Chizuma a criminal record”.
Activist and social commentator Joshua Chisa Mbele has since called on Malawians to camp at the Police Headquarters tomorrow.
Please take note – The person who took the audio recording of Ms Chizuma did so secretly and without her knowledge, while he was having a personal conversation with her, and while posing ‘as a friend’. There cannot be any criminal charges against Ms Chizuma in this case, because there was no crime committed. Throw the case out of court. Instead, initiate a case against the ‘friend’ who recorded the conversation – for recording the audio without her knowledge and with the intent of prosecuting her (ie. malicious intent). Find the real person or group of persons who have carefully planned and plotted this, and prosecute them instead for perverting the law.