Police in Blantyre are still keeping in custody five individuals who were arrested on Sunday on allegations that they conspired to fix a Premier Division match between Ntopwa FC and FOMO FC on Sunday.
The arrested individuals, who are likely to be charged are Alfred Kaphamtengo who is a general secretary for the Southern Region Referees Commitee, Mphatso Jika who owns Bangwe All Stars, Mary Woodworthy who owns FOMO, Billy One and another official for Bangwe All Stars.
They spent a night in custody and are yet to be released by the law enforcers.
But what happened? Malawi24 has all the details
On Monday last week, Southern Region Referees Commitee allocated four referees to take charge of the match.
The four were Mayamiko Kanjere as a centre referee, Sibusiso Sibande, Mark Tunyani as the two assistants, and Cassim Shaibu as the fourth official.
However, the list was kept by Kaphamtengo as he wanted Kanjere to strike a deal with FOMO before releasing it to the public.
According to sources, Kaphamtengo had earlier warned FOMO that it would not be easy to strike a deal with Kanjere because he was a man of integrity, but promised them that he would convince him to receive the first payment of MK250 000 in order to help them secure the Super League promotion.
At first, Kanjere refused, and without the knowledge of Kaphamtengo, he informed other senior members of the Referees Commitee about the arranged plan where he made it clear that he wasn’t interested to officiate the match.
But, he was advised to play along and convince those who were offering the bribe that he was part of the plan with an aim of collecting evidence.
As of Tuesday, Mwayi Nsungama was notified that he would be the man to take charge of the match, an agreement which was only known by the referees body. But Kaphamtengo wasn’t aware of the reasons why there was a sudden change in the officiating personnel.
As of Thursday, the amount was doubled to MK500 000, and the two parties agreed to meet at Jika’s offices in Bangwe to finalise the deal before the match.
Kanjere, at this point, had already informed Police about the whole syndicate. A day for the meeting arrived, and Jika, as promised, offered his place in Bangwe for the meeting.
What happened after the meeting?
As per the agreement, Kaphamtengo, Jika, Woodworth, and the other person met Kanjere to finalise the payment.
Kanjere arrived at the place ready to expose the syndicate. As he was entering into the room, heavily armed police were already on the scene, but the arrested individuals were not aware of the developments happening outside the building.
Kanjere pretended to be part of the plans and received the money which was now at MK1 million, and he majestically walked out as if he wasn’t aware of what was to follow.
The moment he stepped outside the building, Police pounced on Jika and the other members, arresting them on the scene, and they were told the reasons behind their arrests, including showing them cell phone conversations that took place between the accused and Kanjere prior to the game.
Billy One was arrested soon after the match, which was won 4-3 by FOMO on penalties.
But before, tempers flew higher as Isaac Osman confronted the administrators as to why Nsungama was in charge of the game and not Kanjere as earlier announced by the body.
Osman lost his temper and punched one of the officials before calm was restored when the two teams were doing warm-ups.
If convicted, the suspects could spend more than five years in jail.
However, FOMO will still represent the Southern Region in the TNM Super League in the 2024 season.
