APM fails to trace Ntata, Nyasatimes
President Peter Mutharika has failed to serve court summons to former presidential aide Allan Ntata and publishers of an online publication, Nyasatimes.
The President, who sued his fierce critic Ntata and Nyasatimes for defamation, went back to court through his lawyer James Masumbu, and asked the court to allow him to serve the summons through newspapers.
The High Court in Blantyre, after listening to the application on August 18 2015, allowed Mutharika to serve the summons to Ntata and Nyasatimes through Nation Publications Limited (NPL) and/or Blantyre Newspapers Limited (BNL).
The court agreed with Masumbu that substituted service through The Nation and/or The Daily Times shall be good and sufficient service of the writ.
What the substituted service in the newspapers would mean is that should the two defendants (Ntata and Nyasatimes) fail to respond to them, the court would proceed to enter judgement without any further notice.
Mutharika on July 23 2015 sued Ntata and Nyasatimes for defamation and wants to be paid damages.
Ntata was legal adviser to the President’s elder brother, the late Bingu wa Mutharika, who ruled Malawi from 2004 until his death in April 2012.
In a lawsuit filed at the High Court in Blantyre, the President also wants a court order to restrain Ntata and Nyasatimes from further publishing the issue of K92 billion Cashgate linked to the Bingu administration.
According to court records Nation on Sunday has seen, Ntata published an article on Nyasatimes on June 22 this year, alleging the President is implicated in the K92 billion Cashgate.
He further claimed in the article that the President was delaying to release a forensic report of the K92 billion Cashgate under his late brother’s eight-year rule because he was involved.
The President, according to the court record, said Ntata wrote on his Facebook page that a Mrs Sadiq of HTD allegedly defrauded government close to K20 billion on bogus purchases of motor vehicles and that President Mutharika is closely linked to and associated with HTD and the bogus payments could be linked to him.
Mutharika, in the lawsuit filed by Tembenu, Masumbu & Company, said in their natural and ordinary meaning of the published words, they meant he [the President] is engaged in fraud and corruption.
Calls for a comprehensive probe into the K92 billion issues have followed hard on the heels of the Baker Tilly audit exercise that exposed how about K24 billion was wantonly stolen from Capital Hill between April and September 2013 under the administration of Joyce Banda’s People’s Party (PP).
Germany provided K9.76 billion for the audit exercise which was prompted by a 2011 interim investigative audit report of government’s payment system—the Integrated Financial Management and Information System (Ifmis)—which revealed that ministries and departments may have lost about K92 billion through abuse and irregularities between 2009 and 2012.
If Ntata had any worthwhile issues to display to help Malawi he would make himself available so the public can judge for themselves. I personally feel that Ntata is a disgruntled, disappointed, superficial pollitician who only knows how to confuse people! he is supposed to have been advising Bingu but I cant say that we saw much advice being given to the poor late president!
My message to Ntata is: if you want to become president of Malawi do it on your own merrit but let Mutharika sort the country out as much as he can. You are making his job difficult by trying to fulfill your personal ambitions! By gthe way I wouldn’t vote for you even if you were the only candidate! I would rather not have a president!