Police yesterday moved New Republican Party (NRP) president Gwanda Chakuamba to Lilongwe from Karonga in the morning and later transferred him to Nkhotakota after spending four hours at the regional Police station in the Capital City.
In a brief interview at Lilongwe Police Station yesterday, Chakuamba described the development as political.
"It is all political and tell everybody that I am very well," said Chakuamba when it was thought he would be taken to the Lilongwe Magistrate's Court.
One of his lawyers Fahad Assani confirmed Chakuamba was being moved to Nkhotakota.
"I have no idea why they brought him to Lilongwe in the first place. I will make a bail application tomorrow at Nkhotakota," said Assani.
NRP vice-president Ken Zikhale Ngoma said he was initially informed that Police would take Chakuamba to the National Police headquarters for interrogation. This announcement in the morning saw UDF officials rush to Area 30 where they waited for sometime before being informed that Chakuamba would be taken to Lilongwe Police Station.
National Police spokesperson Willie Mwaluka said they did not have details of the matter.
At about lunch hour, some UDF officials were allowed to chat with Chakuamba at the Police station before lawyer Assani appeared. Then people left the station for the court which is about 700 metres away.
Journalists, a crowd of about 60 people, including UDF Central Region governor John Banda, and some well wishers waited for Chakuamba's appearance.
Police prosecutors arrived at the court but each denied knowledge about Chakuamba's case. Assani drove to the court and approached the regional prosecutions officer briefly and left. He could not take questions from the media.
It became apparent Chakuamba would not be make any appearance at the court after 3 pm when the court clerks indicated that they had not received anything on the matter. UDF officials confirmed this 10 minutes later when they addressed the gathering. They refused to talk to the media.
Assani confirmed at about 3.45 pm that Chakuamba was being taken to Nkhotakota where the Police said he committed the offence of inciting violence after he allegedly told a rally to beat up Alhomwe who he described as being pompous following the launch of their Mulhako wa Alhomwe.
Chakuamba was arrested on Monday morning in Karonga and by 8 am today, he would have spent more than the required 48 hours in custody without appearing in a court of law.
http://www.nationmw.net/newsdetail.asp?article_id=2560
No comments:
Post a Comment