Malawi Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Nelson Bophani on Wednesday angered the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament whose members felt he did not clearly answer their questions on the Capital Hill cashgate.
Bophani, who is chairperson of the special investigation committee on the looting of public funds at Capital Hill, was summoned to give PAC an update on investigations into the matter.
Mainly the committee wanted to know if the police are linking Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo to the cashgate and whether they interviewed him on the matter when they met him in South Africa.
Asked PAC member Henry Mussa: “What is the link between Mphwiyo’s shooting and the cashgate scandal at Capital Hill?”
In response, Bophani said: “This is a matter which will be tackled in court. But Mphwiyo is a primary witness in a shooting crime. Conclusively, [Mphwiyo] can be anything at any time, but in our records he is a witness.”
On whether the police interviewed Mphwiyo on cashgate issues, Bophani said the police’s focus was on Mphwiyo as a witness of a crime and that the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) interviewed him on other matters.
However, his response did not go down well with the Members of Parliament (MPs) who asked further questions, including why Bophani arrived together with Mphwiyo at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) on his arrival from South Africa where Mphwiyo underwent surgery after his shooting on September 13 this year at the gate of his Area 43 residence in Lilongwe.
Apparently not convinced with Bophani’s responses, another PAC member, Clement Chiwaya, said: “Don’t play tricks with us Deputy Inspector General. Please, address the questions. You should know that the public is counting on you to tell us the truth.”
But Bophani responded, saying: “I said I did not go to South Africa to bring Mphwiyo [back home]. I just met him at the airport and we were on the same plane. A DIG [Deputy Inspector General] cannot escort a person whether criminal or not.”
The committee members also looked unsatisfied with Bophani’s responses to queries about businessperson Oswald Lutepo’s whereabouts before he turned himself in.
“For a while, I really believed that Lutepo was outside the country, but we are further investigating the matter. Once we conclude our investigations, we will share everything with the public,” said Bophani.
However, the committee wondered why it is taking long for police to find out whether Lutepo was within the country before he handed himself over, arguing police could easily get details of Lutepo’s movements from the Immigration Department.
“We are wondering why it is taking time to investigate the matter when it is only a matter of verifying with passports since a warrant of arrest was already issued. Do you mean the Immigration Department failed us or he is somebody who can just move in and out anyhow?” asked another member, Nicholas Dausi.
Other questions which the committee members felt were not clearly addressed include those related to names of other members of the police investigation committee, whether police knows the motive behind Mphwiyo’s shooting and alleged VIP treatment for Lutepo when he was in custody.
