Some civil society organisations (CSOs) have called for investigations into high profile victims of a conman on plot allocation, arguing their conduct smacks of corruption.
The call follows an exclusive story in our sister paper Nation on Sunday which exposed that more people had fallen victim to the suspected fraudster, days after presidential adviser on parliamentary affairs and national unity Vuwa Kaunda lost about K1.4 million to the same conman.
The other victims included former minister of agriculture and Thyolo South West parliamentarian Allan Chiyembekeza, director of public affairs in the Office of the President and Cabinet Gerald Viola, Malawi Enterprise Development Fund chief operations officer Dingiswayo Jere and Pacharo Msowoya, son to Speaker of Parliament Richard Msowoya.
The victims are reported to have deposited money into a personal account belonging to G. Kaunga who was posing as controller of lands Felix Mangani.
In an interview at the weekend, Youth and Society director Charles Kajoloweka said the development shows there is corruption within government ranks which must be investigated.
“Our interest is also to have the affected officials investigated for possible fraud. To me, it only shows how corrupt they are and how they are benefitting from the State through short-cuts,” he said.
In his remarks, Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) executive director Timothy Mtambo also called for an investigation and that President Peter Mutharika should act on the matter.
“If the President keeps quiet, he could be sending a wrong message that he cares less about corruption and I know this is not the image he wants to paint,” he added. n
