Trio in fuel imports case wants matter closed

Three people accused of attempting to influence the award of National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) fuel import contracts have asked the Lilongwe Magistrate’s Court to dismiss their matter due to lack of seriousness.

Through their lawyers, the three, namely former minister of Energy Newton Kambala, former presidential adviser on strategy Chris Chaima Banda and Aford president Enock Chihana argue that there is lack of interest from the prosecuting agency, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), to proceed with the case.

In court yesterday, one of the defence lawyers George Mtchuka Mwale, speaking on behalf of his colleagues, applied for the discharge.

He said the way the ACB is handling the case “portrays serious abuse of rights and lack of seriousness to prosecute the matter”.

Mtchuka Mwale said since the case started in 2021, there have only been two witnesses, Charles Mzinga who is planning and research manager for the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) and former Nocma deputy chief executive officer Helen Buluma.

He said the defence team has been filing notices for ‘mention’, but the graft-busting agency has not been showing seriousness to have the case return to court.

Said Mtchuka Mwale: “The defence was not supposed to be filing the notices while the prosecution team just sits back.”

He also told the court that the defence team was informally informed of the change of presiding magistrate.

Initially, the case was being heard by chief resident magistrate Patrick Chirwa who has since been promoted to High Court Judge. The matter has now been taken over by chief resident magistrate Madalitso Khoswe Chimwaza.

Following the application, Chimwaza has asked ACB to make its written response submissions on the application to discharge the three by June 22 this year.

The magistrate has further given the defence up to June 26 to file their submissions, and that ruling on the application will be made on June 30 2023.

Meanwhile, one of the lawyers representing the ACB, Peter Sambani, has said they are ready to prosecute and they will be making all needed submissions for the trial to proceed.

The other defence lawyers in the case are Bright Theu and Khumbo Soko representing Kambala, Gilbert Khonyongwa representing Chihana and Wapona Kita alongside Mtchuka Mwale representing Chaima.

On January 20 2022, the three pleaded not guilty to all charges laid before them prompting the State to parade witnesses.

The ACB arrested the three on August 9 2021 on suspicion that they wanted to pressure Nocma to award contracts to Orxy, Finergy and Trafigura.