APM owes us an explanation

Former president Peter Mutharika on Sunday made serious allegations during a press conference he held at his retirement home in Mangochi.

Mutharika, who is fondly called APM, alleged that his brother former president Bingu did not die of natural causes but was poisoned by someone he claims he knows.

He further gave a timeline of events on that fateful day in April in 2012.

However, this is not the first time that Mutharika has made such serious allegations.

Soon after his arrest in 2012 over treason allegations against then vice-president Joyce Banda, who later became president following the country’s Constitution, Mutharika claimed Banda had a hand in Bingu’s death.

Strangely, when Mutharika became president in 2014, he never saw it fit to pursue the issue through legal means.

We, therefore, agree with the legal experts that Mutharika’s allegations have legal implications and that they have the potential to incite hatred and violence.

It is for this reason that we believe that Mutharika owes Malawians an explanation on what happened to Bingu on April 5 2012 because at the time of his death, Bingu was the State president.

We ask the law enforcers to interrogate the former president over his allegations for the country to know the truth.

Ironically, the 2013 findings from the Commission of Inquiry say that Bingu died of cardiac arrest. Yet, Mutharika himself appeared before the inquiry where he had an opportunity to present his side of the story.

We wonder why Mutharika is coming out now with these new revelations? Otherwise, as political commentators have argued, we fear that the former president just wants to score cheap political points.

If it is so, then it is unfortunate for someone to want to gain political mileage at the expense of his brother’s death.