By Dickson Kashoti
Contrary to popular views that President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera is one of those implicated in Zuneth Sattar corruption scandal, UK court documents have shown that the President is not one of those who received money or any bribes from the businessman.
Weeks ago an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) report mentioned Vice President Saulosi Klaus Chilima as among those mentioned in the UK’s National Crime Agency (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.
A latest Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) on Tuesday 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.
“Neither Chakwera not Nundwe has been named in the ACB or the NCA corruption investigations,” reads the PIJ story.
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 content 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.
