Former Ministers, Ben Phiri, Mwanamveka netted: Goodall Gondwe, Dalitso Kabambe also to be arrested
Two former senior cabinet ministers who are serving parliamentarians in the deposed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Professor Peter Mutharika led administration, Ben Phiri and Joseph Mwanamveka have been arrested.
Highly placed Police sources at National Police Headquarters, Area 30 in Lilongwe have confirmed to have arrested former minister of Finance Joseph Mwanamveka and former Local Government minister Ben Malunga Phiri and that more senior government officials are in line to be arrested.
“I can confirm that Ben Phiri and Joseph Mwanamveka have been arrested and I can also confirm that former Finance Minister, 85 year old Goodall Gondwe, former Reserve Bank Governor Dalitso Kabambe will be arrested anytime now,” disclosed the police source.
The source said there will be more arrests in the days to follow including some very senior politicians.
Nyasa Times understands that Mwanamveka who is DPP Member of Parliament for Chiradzulu South was nabbed Tuesday night in connection with the sale of Malawi Savings Bank (MBS) who at the time of the sale was Secretary to the treasury.
Mwanamveka’s arrest comes barely 24 hours after Information Minister Gospel Kazako and Attorney General Thabo Nyirenda on Monday warned that Government will investigate the sale of Malawi Savings Bank (MSB) which was sold for a song in 2015.
The bank was sold in 2015 for K9.6 billion during the Peter Mutharika administration.
In the same year, government repaid about K6 billion in toxic loans on behalf of MSB defaulters including Mulli Brothers, with the belief that the borrowers will repay the money to government.
Mwanamvekha served once as the bank’s chief executive officer and he left the role in 2009 and was later appointed Minister of Trade in the Peter Mutharika administration when the bank was being sold.
Mwanamveka, an economist, served as Minister of Finance between 2019 and 2020 when Mutharika lost the elections.
There have been claims that the ousted DPP Government administration was cooking figures to make the Malawi economy seem better than it was. .
Yesterday, Attorney General Nyirenda warned that action will be taken against people who presented the cooked-up figures to International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Chakaka Nyirenda, said the provision of false information to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank on financial matters, which purportedly occurred in the previous regime, will be investigated.
The government chief legal advisor said this has regrettably cost the country as some grants and loans have been withheld.
The AG warns that officers involved shall face criminal charges.
Also, speaking in Parliament recently, Minister of Homeland Security Richard Chimwendo Banda had sternly warned about possible consequences for those he said were responsible for cooking up figures which were presented to the IMF and World Bank.
Ben Phiri, legislator for Thyolo Central who was at one point Former president Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika’s right hand man handed himself to the Police at the National Police Headquarters at Area 30 after the police went to his house in Blantyre Tuesday afternoon but did not find him as he was in Lilongwe.
According to sources close to Ben Phiri, the Thyolo Central parliamentarian was informed of his warrant of arrest by police officers over the phone.
Government spokesperson Gospel Kazako says the arrests are not a political witch-hunt rather it is a criminal witch-hunt.
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