BWB case adjourned to Friday
The Blantyre Magistrate’s Court on Monday adjourned to Friday a money laundering case in which Blantyre Water Board (BWB) former employee Brian Makote and his accomplice Oscar Kapito are suspected to have defrauded the board money amounting to K150 million.
The two made a plea of not guilty to charges leveled against them last month but the court found them with a case to answer.
As the state had finished parading its witnesses in the case, the court entered into defence on Monday with Kapito, the first accused person, testifying on his own behalf.
In his defence, Kapito denied any involvement in the case brushing aside allegations that he tried to cash a cheque amounting to K20 million at Nedbank Limbe Branch on August 15, 2017 under a false name of Moses B. Mussa.
He insisted that on that particular day he was at Limbuli Trading Centre in Mulanje purchasing goods for his grocery business.
He then went on to challenge the State to produce CCTV recordings of him in the bank as evidence.
However, speaking in an interview outside the court, southern region prosecution officer Christopher Katani said there was no need for CCTV recordings as more evidence was gathered from officers from the bank including a driver’s license that he left in the bank which had his face on it.
Senior resident magistrate Viva Nyimba adjourned the case to Friday, April 13 at two o’clock in the afternoon for cross examination by the State.
Said Nyimba: “Since I gave more time for the defence team to give their side of the story, I believe it will only be out of fairness to give the same chance to the State for cross examination.”
Meanwhile, police are looking for Obi Liwonde a third accused in the case who is still on the run.
BWB is flying an advert in the press bearing Liwonde’s face with a promise of a K500 000 reward to anyone with information that may lead to the arrest and subsequent conviction of Liwonde, its former employee.
Makote, the former BWB debt collector was arrested in Botswana by the International Police (Interpol) and extradited to Malawi in October last year.
He is remanded to Chichiri Prison together with Kapito after being denied bail three times.
Makote and Liwonde are suspected to have siphoned the money using a parallel account they opened at Nedbank and Kapito is believed to have been a signatory for that account.
