Malawi Police arrest DPP, govt officials over Bingu inquiry
Malawi Police have arrested several top officials, including opposition DPP acting president Peter Mutharika, following their implication in the just released Commission of Inquiry report into the death of Malawi’s former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika last year.
Malawi’s National Police spokesperson Rhoda Manjolo confirmed the arrest of “some people in connection with the investigations over the death of president Bingu wa Mutharika”.
“The investigations are still going on but, at the moment, we can’t mention who has been arrested,” said Manjolo.
Peter Mutharika handed himself over to Southern Region Police Headquarters in Malawi’s commercial city, Blantyre, in the morning following a warrant arrest on him in connection to a succession plot by some members of the late Mutharika’s Cabinet after his sudden death in April last year.
Others arrested are:
- Patricia Kaliati, former Information minister
- Dr Jean Kalirani, former Health minister
- Henry Mussa, former Local Government minister
- Bright Msaka, Chief Secretary to the Government
- Kondwani Nankhumwa, former deputy Foreign Affairs minister
- Goodall Gondwe, current Minister of Economic and Planning
- Nicholas Dausi, DPP spokesperson
- Duncan Mwapasa, former presidential guard commander
- Necton Mhura, deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet
The younger Mutharika has since been transferred to Lilongwe amid protests from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters who earlier blocked the road leading to Southern Region Police Headquarters in Blantyre.
The angry DPP supporters, chanting anti-government songs, burnt Malawi flags in the middle of the road, close to Southern Region Police. In a scuffle between police and DPP supporters in Blantyre, the law enforcers fired teargas to contain the situation.
DPP regional governor for the South, Noel Masangwi, who accompanied Mutharika as he handed himself over to police, has since described the arrest of the acting DPP president and other party’s officials as political.
