In the exercise of its governance watchdog role, the Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has written a letter to President Lazarus Chakwera demanding to institute a Commission of Inquiry within 14 days to investigate circumstances surrounding the death of Saulosi Chilima and eight others, in the Chikangawa forest in Nkhatabay district on Monday, 10th June 2024.
The CDEDI has warned President Chakwera that failure to do the needful within the given period in the interest of the nation will leave the organization with no choice but to mobilize Malawians to respond to the same with peaceful demonstrations in a quest for justice.
The organization says until the 15TH September 2024 MCP rally at Ngwenya in Lilongwe City, most Malawians thought that President Chakwera was not bothered by the speculations and the accompanying finger-pointing over Chikangawa forest nine deaths.
Writing in a statement dated 18th September 2024 signed by its Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa, the CDEDI says the public sentiments President Chakwera made at the MCP rally lamenting over the death of Dr Chilima and eight others, has put him in agreement with the troubled majority who seek closure on the tragic loss of those nine patriots.
The CDEDI says the FBU Report from Germany shows crystal clear cases of negligence, suppression of material facts and failure to adhere to laws and regulations governing the nation, claiming that Malawians are shocked that till this hour, no single government official has been held accountable for failure to act.
The organization says Malawians are dutifully expecting President Chakwera and his administration to go beyond mere lamentations over the death of Dr. Chilima and eight others, by equally constituting an independent Commission of Inquiry over circumstances that led to the tragic accident.
The CDEDI says there is a lack of interest to act after the FBU preliminary report contradicted President Chakwera and his government’s narrative surrounding the plane crash; it believes that if this happened elsewhere in a truly transparent and accountable manner, government heads would have rolled, including arrests.
“We recognize Malawians constitutional right to read the sequence of meticulous reports of the turn of events stemming from the FBU preliminary report as a critical step towards finding a satisfying closure on the tragedy,” reads the statement in part.
The CDEDI has demanded President Chakwerat fire Malawi Army Chief General Dr. Paul Velentino Phiri for allowing the country’s departed Vice-President to travel on an aircraft that was a disaster-in-waiting and misinforming the nation that the MDF could not locate the plane due to the thickness of the Chikangawa forest.
The organization has also demanded President Chakwera to fire Minister of Information and Digitalization Moses Kunkuyu for providing a wrong government narrative on the accident and MACRA Director General Daud Suleman for initiating a hotline 261 calling for information leading to the location of the plane.
According to the FBU preliminary report, the site where the plane crashed had a tower that gave the signal, and the report revealed that four gadgets belonging to three passengers on the crashed plane had their gadgets switched on but also logged in.
