2 let off the hook in Batatawala case
The State has withdrawn all the six charges levelled against two interdicted immigration officers Fletcher Nyirenda and Limbani Chawinga in a corruption case involving businessperson Abdul Karim Batatawala and others.
A certificate of discontinuance dated March 7 2024 and signed by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Masauko Chamkakala which shows that Nyirenda and Chawinga are now off the hook.
The six counts bordered on conspiracy to defraud the government, abuse of public office and money laundering.
Reads the certificate of discontinuance in part: “It is hereby certified in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 77 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code that the State enters discontinuance of the aforementioned charges against the named accused persons.”
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Nyirenda and Chawinga in mid-December 2022 along with Batatawala and former Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services chief immigration officer Elvis Thodi.
The four were suspected to have committed corrupt practices in the procurement contracts for uniforms and other accessories at the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services between 2009 and 2012.
In an interview yesterday, ACB director general Martha Chizuma confirmed that both Nyirenda and Chawinga have been withdrawn from the corruption case.
“Yes, their charges have been discontinued by the DPP and they will become the State witnesses in the same matter,” she said.
In a separate interview, Nyirenda and Chawinga’s lawyer Joseph Chiume expressed excitement with the State’s decision to discontinue his clients’ charges.
At the time of their arrests, Nyirenda was Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services commissioner responsible for operations while Chawinga was a deputy director.
