Ntata makes counter-claim against Peter Mutharika
Former presidential aide Allan Ntata has filed counter-claims at the High Court in Blantyre against President Peter Mutharika, also demanding damages for defamation.
Mutharika took Ntata, former legal adviser to his brother, late Bingu, and online publication Nyasatimes to court following published reports that linked the President to the plunder of K92 billion of public funds.
Ntata denied the charges, saying he was not responsible for the publication of the alleged articles.
But in a twist of events, the former presidential aide argues that it was, in fact, the President who defamed him through a press release his secretary released on July 27 2015.
The press release, as filed in the High Court, reads in part: “For reasons best known to themselves, the individuals don’t seem satisfied with their current occupations but have chosen to make a career out of slander by cooking up stories aimed at tarnishing the President and those they perceive to be stumbling block to their ambitions, to land lucrative government jobs.
“These individuals are led by Mr Z Allan Ntata who had his own expectations when the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) took over power in May 2014. Without scandalising Mr Ntata’s name, he was tried and tested when he once served as legal assistant to the late president Ngwazi Professor Bingu wa Mutharika and all honest Malawians can attest to his performance then.”
Ntata says the statement meant that he was a person of a vindictive, malicious and perverted character who engaged in slanderous activities after failing to secure a job; and that he was an incompetent person in the performance of his job as legal assistant to late Bingu.
He is demanding damages for defamation, exemplary damages as the action was to interfere with freedom of speech, an injunction restraining the President or his servants from publishing such statements and cost of action.
