Mzuzu Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court has set May 2 2025 to deliver judgement in a case where former Mzimba Hora legislator Christopher Mzomera Ngwira and councillor Dan Nkosi are accused of abusing Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
According to the notice of delivery of a judgement in the Criminal Case number 50 of 2020 before senior resident magistrate Godfrey Nyirenda, the ruling will be delivered at 9am.
The notice has come barely a week after The Nation reported that the court has taken over a year to deliver a judgement in this matter which concluded in March 2024.
While the court could not explain the delay, in an earlier interview Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) acting director general Hilary Chilomba confirmed that the court was yet to allocate a date for delivery of judgement. The ACB is the prosecuting agency in the matter.
Ngwira and Nkosi are accused of misusing their public positions to divert funds meant for CDF during their term of office as member of Parliament and councillor respectively between 2014 and 2019.
In July 2023, Chief Justice Rizine Mzikamanda told our sister paper Weekend Nation that apart from the Judiciary putting in place measures and mechanisms to ensure speedy delivery of judgements, Parliament passed into law the Courts Act that mandates judges to deliver rulings within 90 days failing which they will be disciplined.
Mzikamanda was reacting to our findings which showed that several cases awaited judgements which took years to be delivered leading to complaints to the Office of the Ombudsman.
