By Staff Reporter
Following the revelation that he was implicated in the Sattar saga, vice President Saulosi Chilima moved, demanding removal of the presidential immunity and attempted to bribe a few unemployed young Malawians to stage demonstrations.
However, the plan failed miserably after some of the youths he tried to sponsor saw through his selfish motive.
Not to be outdone, Chilima has no resorted to sponsoring a smear campaign against President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, who this far has been declared “clean” by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), the same institution that revealed that Chilima received huge sums of money from Sattar to influence award of contracts.
The information we have, Chilima has been meeting several journalists to find a way on how the Sattar saga could be twisted in his favour.
The efforts have led to the latest Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) story which has attempted to bring Chakwera into the Sattar narrative, though not successfully satisfying the selfish needs of the vice President.
Contrary to what Chilima expected from NCA and PIJ, the story has instead confirmed that President Chakwera is not one of those implicated in Zuneth Sattar corruption scandal.
The PIJ, quoting UK court documents, says the court filings have shown that the President is not one of those who received money or any bribes from the businessman.
“Neither Chakwera not Nundwe has been named in the ACB (Anti-Corruption Bureau) or the NCA corruption investigations,” reads the PIJ story on Tuesday.
Chilima wanted to use the demonstrations as a distraction to an eminent arrest by the ACB and now he believes a distraction through a smear campaign on his boss will bring miracles.
Weeks ago an ACB report mentioned Vice President Saulosi Klaus Chilima as among those mentioned in the UK’s NCA court filings as having received huge sums of money from Sattar to influence award of government contracts.
Soon after the revelation, Chakwera withheld delegated duties to Chilima’s office, fired Police Inspector General George Kainja and suspended some of those mentioned.
PIJ revealed that although letters from the President to the Army Commander Vincent Nundwe were found with Sattar, there is nothing that connects Chakwera to the corruption scandal.
The story indicates that when NCA searched Sattar’s UK residence, they found a letter from Chakwera to Nundwe but the story did not disclose the contents of the letter.
Soon after the PIJ report social media was awash with postings indicating that Chakwera has also been implicated, but several commentators have observed that if the President was among those who received bribes from Sattar the NCA report could have explicitly said so.
“It is very funny that people want to drag Chakwera into this yet the PIJ report has said he is not mentioned in the court filings. This sounds like a plot to drag Chakwera into a mess which he is not party to it. People just want to see the President be dragged into the mad along with Chilima,” said one commentator Charles Mponda on Facebook.
Last week plans were also unearthed about Chilima sponsoring his UTM sympathisers to clandestinely organise nationwide protests in trying to force government and judicial stakeholders to have President Chakwera’s immunity removed.
Information tracking meetings and phone calls showed that UTM senior members had been discussing the plan in detail.
The move followed an address by Chilima, who was busy lobbying for removal of Presidential immunity.
Many Malawians viewed his remarks as a deliberate hint that though he has been implicated in Sattar corrupt dealings, everyone in Tonse Alliance should be placed under investigation.
Legal experts have already thwarted his assertions saying the law does not stop a sitting President from being investigated by state-sanctioned investigative and prosecutorial agencies like the ACB.
Since Chilima’s last week address, UTM has been holding meetings with many political and civil society stakeholders to try and push for removal of Presidential immunity with a thin hope that it will help them blackmail President Chakwera and his Malawi Congress Party.
Most of the meetings have been taking place at the party headquarters in the plush suburb of Area 10 in Lilongwe with several satellite meetings in Area 18, Area 23, Area 36 and Chitipi.
The graft-busting body has been making attenpts to interrogate the Vice President, but the ACB officers have been blocked with one such occasion seeing scores of party supporters, in a clear defiance of the law, blocking the road to Chilima’s Area 43 House in Lilongwe.
Malawians across the country expressed displeasure at the conduct of UTM supporters labelling it undemocratic and anti-justice.
