LILONGWE-(MaraviPost) – The country’s powerful religious grouping, the Public Affairs Committee (PAC), and some political commentators have questioned the legality of over the existence of a warrant of arrest of former President Joyce Banda.
The development comes barely a month after the Malawi Police Service (MPS) issued a statement in July, in which it claimed to have a warrant of arrest for Banda over her alleged involvement in the massive looting of public funds, under the infamous Cash gate saga.
On July 30, 2017 the MPS announced that it had a warrant of arrest for Banda and that it was going to work with Interpol to arrest her.
The Police said its Fiscal and Fraud sections unearthed credible evidence, which raises reasonable suspicion that Banda committed offences related to abuse of office in Cashgate.
Since the MPS’ statement last month, nothing has happened and her name is still missing on the list of people wanted by the International Police (Interpol).
This has therefore prompted PAC and political analysts to raise suspicion over the legality of the warrant of arrest’ of the former President’ or whether it was a political gimmick or hoax.
The religious body’s spokesperson, Fr Peter Mulomole said that the Police action was made out of pressure from the country’s authority without proper evidence.
Fr. Mulomole observes that a person cannot be arrested without a warrant of arrest, which the Police failed to justify the existence of that document.
Fr. Mulomole therefore, urged the Police to be professional and explain to the nation why they made that announcement when the warrant of arrest is not on the Interpol list.
“I feel this statement was just one of those things to show off that something is being done, when nothing is being done. It was a political statement,” Fr. Mulomole said.
“The Inspector General of Police should go a step further. If something was indeed done, we would have heard something from the country that is hosting Banda,” said Mulomole.
